


The Adventures of Jay Arc

by AlexElric95



Series: The Jay Arc Saga [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Original Character(s), RWBY ReWrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-06-18 16:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 34,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15489531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexElric95/pseuds/AlexElric95
Summary: Have you have wondered what it would be like if Jaune Arc did not exist? Well I have news for you. Follow the adventures of my OC Jay Arc, as he explores the World of Remnant.





	1. A New Beginning

The sudden turbulence of the ship awoke Jay from his uncomfortable position he was sitting in with a start. He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the pain from sitting like that for a long period of time. A voice came aloud on the loudspeaker telling everyone on the ship that they would be arriving at Beacon Academy in five minutes and that they should all be prepared for the landing. He took this as a sign that he should get up from his seat and get his legs moving. He grabbed his duffle bag that was next to him and got up from his seat; eager to check out his surroundings.

As he walked around the ship, he saw all the looks of excitement coming from everybody there; it was pretty easy to get caught up in the feeling. He had been looking forward to this day for a long time. He knew how hard you had to work to make it here and all the work he had put in to get to this moment had been worth it. All the training, all the schooling back at Signal Academy and passing Beacon’s entrance exam; all of it was important. Today was the start of something special and he wanted to cherish every moment of it.

The ship had finally landed and everyone rushed to get outside. Jay got caught up in the shoving, so he had to push just to get out of there. Once he escaped the crowd and got off the ship, he took in all of what was surrounding him; he was breathless. There in the distance he could see it, Beacon Academy, in all of its grandiose glory. He smiled to himself and continued to walk. 

Before he could walk any further, his scroll started to ring; it was his grandma. He had promised to call her as soon as he got there and well... a promise is a promise. He picked up the phone and started to talk,  
“Hey gramma, I’m sorry I couldn’t reach you right away; the turbulence is awful.”  
“That’s alright sweetie, I just wanted to make sure you got there safely. Before I let you go get settled, I just wanted to say how proud your grandfather and I are of you for getting into Beacon. I know if your mom and dad were still here, they would’ve been proud of you too.” “Thanks gramma. Hey, tell gramps and Melanie hi for me ok?”  
“Yep, I’ll tell them you said hi. I love you kiddo.”  
“I love you too gramma, bye!”  
As he was hanging up his scroll, he could hear a loud BOOM, coming from behind him. His first thought was...what in the actual hell. His second thought was that he had only been there for five minutes and already something was happening. He turned around and saw the cause of the explosion. One was a girl with snow white hair that he recognized as Weiss Schnee; the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. She was screaming at another girl who he hadn’t seen before. 

As he watched the Schnee girl walk away in a huff, he noticed the other girl was left alone. She looked like she was having a hard time, so he decided to go and help her out. Jay walked over to the girl and reached his hand out towards her. He cleared his throat and said,  
“Hey...I’m Jason, but everyone calls me Jay.”  
“I’m Ruby.” the girl exclaimed shyly as he helped her off the ground. 

“Wait a minute...so you knew my sister Yang?”  
“Yeah, we had a few classes together back at Signal. Man she has a wicked right hook.”  
This statement got the two of them laughing. They had been walking around for awhile trying to find the main hall and for the most part they had been silent. That was until Jay mentioned he had went to Signal before coming to Beacon and from there, they were able to break the ice. 

After the laughter died down, Ruby stopped and uttered in a hopeful voice,  
“So...I got this.” and with that she brought out her weapon, a collapsible scythe.  
“Wow, that’s a wicked weapon.”  
“It’s also a customizable, high impact velocity sniper rifle.”  
“A what now?”  
“It’s also a gun.”  
“Oh yeah, that’s rad.”  
“ Thanks! What do you have?” she questioned. Jay smirked at her and in one forward motion, the leather bracelets around his wrists formed around his hands into the shape of gauntlets. Ruby looked over in awe and let out an ooooohhh and asked,  
“What do they do?”  
“Well, they have flame dust embedded into them; so I can shoot fireballs. Plus, they’re great for getting up close and personal.”  
“Well, I’m kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. I guess I went a little too overboard when I was designing it.”  
“Not at all, I think you put a lot of effort and thought into it and it clearly shows. When I made my weapon, I only had one thought in mind; I wanted to base my weapon after my dad’s back when he was a huntsman. I guess that sounds stupid huh.”  
“ Well, I like it! Not many people can appreciate something so personal .”

As they continued to walk, Ruby pondered aloud,  
“Hey, why did you help me back there?”  
“Well, it looked you were having a hard time and I thought you could use a friend. It’s not easy coming to a new school where you don’t know anybody. Trust me, I’ve been there before.” Jay replied as Ruby nodded in acknowledgement. They stopped and looked around for a brief moment with Ruby asking, “Hey, aren’t we supposed to be at the main hall by now?”  
“ I don’t know, I thought you knew where it was.” Jay and Ruby looked at each other in panic, realizing the time. With all of their might, they ran as fast as they could back towards the main area in hopes of finding the main hall.  
Jay and Ruby had finally made it to their destination and by the time they had got there, they were already exhausted from all the running they had done. As they both entered the hall, they heard a voice yell, “Ruby I saved you a spot!” the mysterious, yet familiar voice belonged to her sister, Yang Xiao Long. She looked up at him and said,  
“Oh! Hey I gotta go! I’ll see you after the ceremony!”  
“Catch ya on the flip side Ruby!” he shouted as she ran away to go and join her sister.

Jay decided to go and find a spot to watch the assembly about to take place. As he was turning to walk away, he bumped into someone. He gathered himself and said,  
“Sorry about that, I’m such a knucklehead.”  
“I wouldn’t go that far.” the girl replied.  
He glanced in her direction and he instantly recognized her; she was Pyrrha Nikos. She was a huge celebrity back in Mistral; She was the top graduate at Sanctum and winner of the Mistral Regional tournament four years in a row. He decided to play it cool with Pyrrha. After all, she was just a student here just like him.  
“Hey, I’m Jason Arc. Most people call me Jay though, Jason sounds too formal for my liking.” He said as he offered his hand to her. She reached out and shook his hand and chuckled as she offered, “I’m Pyrrha, nice to meet you Jay.”  
After they introduced themselves to each other, they decided to watch the assembly together and they stood there in a comfortable silence. As Jay was preparing to listen to the upcoming presentation, he heard the voice of Weiss Schnee refer to him as tall, blonde and...hulky. He raised his head in confusion, wondering why she would be talking about him. Before he could answer his own question, the headmaster of Beacon Academy appeared on stage; Professor Ozpin and he started to speak.

 

Once the headmaster finished his speech, Jay felt like he was left with more questions than answers. The professor standing behind Ozpin, Glynda Goodwitch, took over the mic and said, 

“You will all gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Make sure you are ready. You are dismissed.”  
With that, Jay left the main hall,heading towards the ballroom.

Night had come several hours later and all the first year students were gathered together to sleep in the ballroom. Jay had just finished getting ready for bed, wearing some red flannel pajama pants; with a dark grey tank top. He was trying to find a decent spot to sleep, but it seemed a lot of the best spots were taken. After searching for a spot for what seemed like ages, he found a spot over near the lower right hand side. He placed his sleeping bag onto the floor, got his pillow down on the ground and once that was finished he got down on the floor to get himself comfortable.

Jay thought about the day he had, which had gone more smoothly than he had previously thought. He made at least two friends, which was more than what he thought he would have on the first day, and tomorrow was the initiation process. He took out his scroll and looked through the photos he had saved. He kept scrolling until he reached a very recent picture of his grandparents, his sister Melanie and himself. Looking at that photo made him realize how much he would miss them, but he knew that they would always support him and his dream of becoming a huntsman.

As he was about to drift off into sleep, a loud noise woke him up. He looked up annoyed and noticed where the noise was coming from. Ruby, her sister Yang and the Schnee girl were in a screaming match about what happened that day and how Weiss was trying to sleep. The ironic thing was...their argument was preventing anyone else from getting any sleep. He felt sorry for the girl reading her book off in the corner, as she had a front row seat to the bickering.  
He decided to drown out the noise by listening to the music on his scroll. He got out his headphones, plugged them into his scroll, turned on some rock music to get him pumped for tomorrow and he drifted off to sleep.


	2. A Walk In The Woods

Jay woke up that morning feeling refreshed. He was able to tune out all the arguing between Ruby, Yang and the heiress last night; so he was actually able to get a good night's sleep. He had woken up before most of the other students, so he decided to go for a short jog to get his blood flowing. He had changed into some gym shorts, a navy blue pullover hoodie and some running shoes and headed out the door.

As he was running, he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the school looked this early in the morning. The early morning fog was starting to fade away and the sun had risen somewhere off in the distance. He breathed in the cool morning air as he continued to maintain a good pace. He was excited for the initiation that was going to take place later in the day. He wondered who he would end up with on his team and what they would be like. He just hoped he would get along with them.

When he got back to the main part of campus, Jay got ready for the day. He ate, showered and got dressed. Once he was finished with his morning routine, he headed down to the locker room to find his locker to retrieve his weapon. He eventually got to his destination, the only problem was...he couldn’t find his locker. “Well...that’s just perfect.” he thought to himself as he started to walk around the room; hoping to catch a break and find what he was looking for.

After wandering around the room like a chicken with its head cut off, Jay finally found his locker; it was number 636. He entered his passcode, which was 4105, and almost instantaneously his locker popped open. He grabbed the two leather bracelets that were hanging up in the locker and placed them on each of his wrists. He brought his fists forward and the leather wrapped perfectly around each of his hands; putting his weapon in an active state. He wanted to make sure they worked before the test and once he was satisfied with the results, he returned them to their dormant state.

As soon as Jay closed his locker he could hear two women talking nearby. He looked over and he saw Pyrrha, one of the people he befriended the previous day. She was talking to the Schnee girl, who he figured was trying to recruit the red haired girl for their team since she was really laying on the compliments. He smirked to himself and walked over towards the two women, so that he could talk to them before the initiation.

When he got up to the two of them, he noticed the white haired girl had completely left the planet earth and went off in her own little world. He decided to snap her back to reality by saying,

“You know you don’t have to kiss Pyrrha’s ass that much if you want her to be on your team.” 

She was completely taken aback, not noticing he had been behind her this whole time. Pyrrha let out a chuckle at the two of them and their exchange; and her and Jay exchanged hellos. Weiss scoffed and said to the tall blonde, 

“Well if it isn’t tall, blonde and hulky. Since when did you care about who I team up with?” 

“Actually I don’t, I just think you should stop caring so much...you might learn life can be much more exciting that way. Besides...I have a name and it’s Jay.” 

“Ugh...whatever. I really hope I don’t have you on my team. You’re a pain in my behind.” 

“The feeling is mutual princess. I don’t think I could be on the same team as someone so uptight.”

The heiress started to get flustered, trying to think of another comeback when Jay started to chuckle and interrupted her as he said,

“I’m joking, I wouldn’t be too sore if you and I were on a team together. We’ll just have to let the chips fall where they may.”

He looked over at Pyrrha, noticing that she was trying to keep her laughter contained at the exchange she had just witnessed between him and Weiss. The three of them turned their attention towards the loudspeaker as it reminded them to start heading towards Beacon Cliff for their initiation. He wished both women the best of luck and he started to head towards the cliff.

After a short walk, Jay finally made it over towards Beacon Cliff and he went to go join his fellow first year students. After the chatter began to settle down, Professor Goodwitch got everyone’s attention so that she and Professor Ozpin could speak. He cleared his throat and started to explain to the students their objective.

As Jay was listening to the two professors, he could hear Ruby slightly panic at the thought of being put onto a team today. Ozpin continued to speak, 

“These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years.”

Jay looked over towards Ruby and she was looking more and more panicked as Professor Ozpin continued to explain the rules. He explained to the students that they have to make their way through the northern area of the forest; where they will find an abandoned temple. At the temple, there will be relics and each team must pick one and bring it back to the top of the cliff. During this initiation, teachers will not be allowed to intervene and that the students will have to do whatever it takes to survive in the forest. Honestly, this was a lot of info to take in all at once, but Jay still felt at least a little confident about completing the task.

“So...are there any questions?” Professor Ozpin asked all the first years. Since nobody spoke up, he assumed everyone was ready and told them all to get into position. One by one, each of the students were launched off a springboard that was placed underneath their feet. Jay mentally prepared for the launch and eventually...he was launched into the air; screaming at the top of his lungs in excitement. 

Jay had never felt so alive soaring through the air at top speed. His adrenaline had risen and he felt like he was on a never ending roller coaster. He knew he would have to land sometime soon, so he started to look for a place to land. Before he could actively try and land, he saw a red and gold spear coming towards him. Because he had no time to react, the spear pierced the top of the right side of his shirt; sending him off to another direction.

He ended up being pinned against a very tall tree. He could feel the pain starting to spread all throughout his back and as he was trying to adjust himself he could hear a very familiar voice say,

“I’m sorry!” 

He smirked and said to himself,

“So much for letting the chips fall where they may eh Pyrrha?”

He decided he needed to try and get down from this tree, but the question was how? If he took the spear out from where it was hooking him, it would rip his shirt and he would have a very harsh fall from the tree. He figured Pyrrha was going to come and retrieve her spear eventually, so he decided to stay put. He noticed Weiss coming towards him and he thought she could help him get down. Soon as she got closer, he yelled, 

“Hey Schnee...a little help?” She stared at him for a moment, before she turned around without saying a word back towards Ruby. 

Jay rolled his eyes in annoyance and continued to wait in the tree. He knew calling after the princess wouldn’t be worth it, she wouldn’t have come back. Before he totally lost hope, he heard a voice coming from below,

“Jay...do you need some help?” 

“Har dee har har Pyrrha...and yeah I need some help.”   
“If you take the spear out from your shirt, I can catch you. I promise I won’t let you fall.” He looked into her eyes and they were glimmering with honesty; he knew he could trust her.  
He braced himself as he slowly pulled the spear from the top part of his shirt and just like that he fell right into her arms. 

“My hero.” he exclaimed, as she started to chortle at his comment.

It been a little while since Pyrrha and Jay had met up and became partners. They discovered that when he pulled the spear out of his shirt, it caused an even bigger hole to form; meaning the top part of his shirt on the right hand side was ruined. That didn’t stop him however as he just removed the sleeve from the affected area. If his grandmother knew he wrecked this shirt, she would’ve given him a good talking too.

They continued to walk until they heard various booming noises. He looked towards his partner and said in a hushed tone, 

“Gunfire?”

“Yep. It seems some of our comrades have encountered the enemy.” she acknowledged. They silently agreed that they had to proceed with caution and continued to walk along the path.

Pyrrha moved a branch out of the way, but unknowingly sent the branch in Jay’s direction. Before the branch could hit him a golden glow surrounded his body and shielded him from the branch. She turned around and before she could speak, she noticed the golden glow and knew right away what it was; he had just activated his aura. He looked at her confused for a moment before clueing in to what she was thinking.  
When he released the branch from his grasp, he started to walk past her; but she grabbed onto his arm. 

“What are you doing Pyrrha? Don’t we have to go and find the relic?” he questioned. 

“I know, but there’s something I want to know Jay...what do you think aura means?”

“Well, isn’t it a manifestation of one’s soul?”

“Well that may be true, but that wasn’t my question.” Jay was starting to get more confused, but Pyrrha continued to press, 

“My question was, what do you think aura means.”

“Do you always get philosophical with people you just met?”

“Maybe...maybe not. I don’t know, I’m just curious of what your answer might be.”

He took a moment to think about what he was going to say to her and when he knew his answer, he took a deep breath and spoke,   
“Well, it may be true that aura is a manifestation of one’s soul; but I think there’s more to it than that. I think your soul truly can’t exist without the coexistence of your mind and body. I think for an aura to truly reach its full potential your body and mind need to be completely in tune...otherwise I don’t think it could be done.”

Pyrrha nodded in acknowledgement and said, 

“That’s a pretty thoughtful way of thinking about it. It makes perfect sense.”

“Well you got what you were asking for; philosophical conversations out in the woods with your teammate. What more could you ask for right?”

“True. But we better get back to finding that relic.” 

“Right we wouldn’t want to forget that now would we?”

“Right.” she chuckled. 

The pair of them continued their walk in the woods in search of what they were looking for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	3. A Walk In The Woods Part Two

Jay and Pyrrha felt like they had been walking around for hours. They hadn’t gotten any closer to finding the relic and they were both starting to get frustrated. Just as they were about to give up, they came across a cave. They gave each other a nod, both thinking taking a look inside was a good idea. He grabbed a lighter he had from the pouch on his belt, picked up a stick from the ground and made themselves a torch. Once the torch was lit, they proceeded on into the cave.

“I’m not sure this is it.” Pyrrha said, as they continued to walk through the cave. 

They had been looking for the relic in this cave for quite awhile, and she was starting to get a bad feeling about this place. 

“It should be here somewhere… maybe we’re just not looking for it hard enough…. AHH.” Jay yelped as he tripped over a staggered rock. He picked himself back up, but he could not see a thing since his torch was snuffed out when he fell. 

“Do you feel that Jay?” Pyrrha said.

“Excruciating pain? Didn't you see me fall ?” 

“No…. it feels… warm.” 

They decided to keep walking very carefully throughout the cave. They walked for a good ten feet before they noticed a glowing object in the distance. Jay walked up to it slowly to try and grab it, but the object moved away from him. After many attempts, he grabbed onto it with both hands; but he started to feel whatever he was grabbing onto pulling him up. 

“Jay I don’t think that’s the relic.” Pyrrha said panicked.   
The darkness faded away as the glow revealed the object to be the end of a deathstalker tail. 

“Pyrrha run!” he screamed and as she started to run, he stayed attached to the creature’s tail.

Pyrrha found her way out of the cave, but she wondered where her partner had went. Before she could answer her own question, a part of the cave came apart from the force of the deathstalker’s strength. There Jay was, still holding onto its tail. 

“Pyrrha, I’m gonna try and distract this thing, you try disarming it ok?” Jay screamed.

“Right.” she yelled back towards him. 

“Great… how am I going to do this? This thing is so huge and if I mess this up, I’ll be dead for sure. Hmmm. Wait a minute, I need to try and get to that thing’s tail. That’s how I’m gonna distract the creature. Remember your training Jay, you can take this thing out no problem.” he thought to himself.

He tried to get on top of the creature’s tail, so that he could try and get its attention away from Pyrrha. But unfortunately, he miscalculated big time, because before he could react he was sent flying through the air.

As he soared through the air, he could see Ruby, who was also falling from the sky. There was no way he could move out of the way in time and before he knew it, he collided harshly with Ruby, the two of them landing in a nearby tree. He was hanging upside down from the branches, his legs caught in the bark

. “Jay...how are you?” Ruby asked with a hint of pain in her voice.

“Oh you know...just...hanging around.” he said sarcastically. 

“Jay...that was just painful.”

“I’m sorry Ruby, I couldn’t help myself with that one. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have made that pun if you were in my position?”

“Actually that sounds like something I would do. Well played Jay.”

Jay turned his head when he heard his partner’s voice calling his name. “Pyrrha!” he yelled in response. Ruby took the opportunity to leave the tree, with Jay still being stuck. “Ruby!?” he called to her, but it was no use… he was still stuck in the tree. He lifted his body upwards, latched onto his foot and removed it from the branch it was stuck on. He landed on another branch on his back. There was another back injury for him and it hadn’t been a full day at this point. 

After brushing himself off, he noticed the Schnee girl falling from the sky. He noted how he was in a perfect position to save her and he decided to try. Although he liked to bug her, he didn’t hate her. So with all of his might, he leapt from the tree and he was able to catch Weiss.   
“Did you have a nice fall princess?” he said to her sarcastically. She just glared at him in response.   
However, they both realized they were still high up in the air. They grabbed onto one another and they fell to the ground. He had landed face first, with her falling second...right onto his back; strike three for the back injuries he had received today. 

“My hero.” she said in a deadpanned tone. 

“My back.” he replied with a twinge of pain in his voice.

Jay and Weiss picked themselves up and started to head towards the group.

“You know Schnee, you could at least say thanks. I just saved you from what could’ve been a very gruesome death.” Jay said to her with a slight hint of teasing to his voice.

“Fine… thanks for letting me use your back as a safety net. Oh and by the way, you’re still a pain in my butt.” Weiss said as she continued to walk, while Jay just shook his head and chuckled.

“You’re quite the original aren’t you Schnee?” he thought to himself.

Once Jay and Weiss were present , they had quite the shock when Pyrrha landed straight by their feet.   
“Great! The gang’s all here! Now we can die together!” Yang said as everyone gathered around each other. 

He walked over towards Pyrrha and offered her his hand. He looked at her and said,

“Pyrrha...are you ok?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Question is, are you ok?” she wondered.

“Yeah I’m fine, I just got hung up in that tree. You would not believe how long it took for me to get the kinks out of my back after that.” he responded, with Pyrrha smiling in response. 

He turned the other way and noticed Ruby had gone rushing towards the deathstalker. He watched as the nevermore above her shot his feathers at her, getting her cape caught in the process. Yang had ran over to help her sister, but the feathers prevented her from getting closer. He was worried for Ruby, wondering how she was ever going to get out of there. Before the deathstalker could hit her with its stinger, he saw Weiss zoom past him, headed towards Ruby. 

With one quick swing of her weapon, the deathstalker froze in front of Ruby. Jay let out a sigh of relief, thankful that Ruby was ok. Weiss really surprised him, as he knew how she and Ruby weren’t really the best of friends. But it took a lot of guts to go out there and risk her life for Ruby and he respected that.

Once Weiss and Ruby rejoined the group, Jay spoke up and said, 

“Guys...the nevermore is coming back. What do we do?” 

“Well there’s no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us.” Weiss retorted.

“She’s right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There’s no point in fighting these things.” Ruby added. 

“I like the cut of your jib Ruby. Let’s grab those artifacts and get out of here.” Jay echoed. 

Ruby and Jay walked over towards the temple and they each picked up an artifact. She had picked up the white knight piece, while he picked up the white rook piece. Once they got them, they joined their large group and they all ran back towards the direction of the cliff. As they ran, they came across an ancient ruin type area and the nevermore planted itself atop an old tower of bricks. As the nevermore screeched, the deathstalker had freed itself of Weiss’s ice and had joined the brawl. The situation looked dire.

The deathstalker drew itself closer and that’s when they decided to run. Two other students who had joined them, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren, made the decision to distract the nevermore. When Pyrrha and Jay got to the bridge, she urged him to go on ahead. She tried to shoot at the deathstalker, but it was no use. Once everyone gathered together again, they all ran across the pathway as fast as they could. However, their running was cut short when the nevermore crashed into the bridge. One half of the group was on one side while the other half was on the remaining side.

Jay got up from the ground, but noticed Pyrrha, Ren and the girl Yang was partnered with, who he was sure was named Blake, were in need of help with the deathstalker. 

“We have to get over there!” Jay exclaimed, while Nora grinned at him and said,

“Let’s do this!”   
“Are you nuts, we can’t make that jump!” he shouted.

“Just watch me!” she said as she lifted her hammer and slammed it into the ground. The force from the hammer propelled him to the other side, while she used her hammer to join him on the other side.

Nora had crashed into Blake sending her off the cliff, but she had saved herself using her weapon. This left Jay, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren alone with the deathstalker; while Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang dealt with the nevermore. Jay moved his fists forward, activating his weapon and the leather wrapped around his hands. The bridge was about to collapse, so he and the others started to move closer to the deathstalker.

As they got closer, Pyrrha and Jay each attacked one of the front claws, while Ren tried to shoot at it. Nora’s hammer took another form and she started to fire away at the creature, while Pyrrha threw her spear into the creature’s eye. This got them to react, moving its tail violently; launching Ren off of them into the wall.   
Jay noticed the top part of its tail was hanging loose. So he clapped his hands together, causing a reaction with the flame dust embedded into his weapon. Once his charge was activated, he punched a shot of flame dust at the creature’s tail; causing it to fall into its back. “Nora...Pyrrha finish it off!” he yelled back. They both nodded as the red head knelt down, holding her shield so Nora could propel herself. Nora bounced herself off of the other’s shield and in one swift movement, slammed her hammer into the stinger left in its back. 

The force from that blow, launched Pyrrha and Jay back onto the other side. Nora finished the creature off with another blast from her hammer and the deathstalker fell into the depths below. Jay walked over to where Ren was lying and offered to help him up. The other boy accepted the gesture and smiled at him. They walked over to where the girls were standing and they watched as Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang dealt with the nevermore. They all stood there, marvelling at the four girls’ teamwork. 

Once the nevermore was defeated, Weiss, Blake and Yang joined Jay, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren; as they all watched as Ruby stood alone on top of the nearby cliff; with her scythe at her side and rose petals surrounding her. “Well...that was a thing.” Yang exclaimed, which sent the group in a frenzy of laughter. Seeing the group all laughing together made Ruby smile.

Later on that evening, the team naming ceremony was taking place. On the stage, stood Jay along with Pyrrha, Nora and Ren. Professor Ozpin took a deep breath before he spoke into the microphone and said,

“ Jason Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as...Team JNPR! Led by...Jason Arc.”

Jay looked around in disbelief at himself being named the leader of team JNPR. 

“Congratulations young man.” Professor Ozpin said approvingly. 

Nora pulled Ren into a hug, while Pyrrha gave him a celebratory punch in the arm. He held his shoulder and smiled at her as the four of them walked off the stage so the next team could be named. The last team to be formed consisted of Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. The four of them were to be known as Team RWBY. When he heard Ruby being named team leader, he yelled in excitement for her. 

Once the ceremony was over, the newly named Team JNPR, headed upstairs to find their dorm room. They arrived to their room and when they opened the door, they noticed all of their things had been brought up to the room. They knew they wouldn’t have time to unpack everything tonight, so they decided to just grab what they needed at the moment and go to bed. 

Once everyone was finished getting ready for bed, an enthusiastic Nora plopped down onto her bed and exclaimed, 

“I’M SO HAPPY WE’RE ALL HERE TOGETHER!!” 

“We’re all happy to be here too Nora, but I think we should all try and get some sleep.” Ren pointed out, while the orange haired girl nodded her head; and just like that...she was out like a light. 

Ren said goodnight to Pyrrha and Jay before he too was out for the night. Jay lied back on his bed and looked up towards the ceiling. He couldn’t believe the day he had. It was filled with adventure, danger and shenanigans; but he got to be paired off with three amazing people. There was one thought creeping up in the back of his mind; would he be a good leader? He wanted to make sure he could be the best leader for his teammates. He knew there would be mistakes made...that was going to happen no matter what. But as long he tried his best and with the support of his teammates, he knew they could be successful.

He looked over to the right of him and Pyrrha had fallen asleep with the rest of teammates. He smiled to himself and decided he better call it a night as well. He turned over to his side and let himself drift off into a deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	4. The Arc That Everybody Hated But Better Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody! I would've gotten these next three chapters out sooner, but I was recovering from having surgery. I hope you guys enjoy them!

It had been a good couple of months since Jay had started at Beacon and he was having a good time. He was doing pretty good in all of his classes, bonding well with his teammates and making some friends, and some frenemies, along the way. Currently, he had combat training this period and today he had to go up against someone he particularly didn’t like; Cardin Winchester. 

To say Cardin Winchester was an asshole was an understatement. He was one of the most obnoxious people that Jay had ever met in his life. He was consistently a jerk to everyone around him, he was pretentious to a fault and overall… he was just a complete tool. The first week of school, he had tripped Jay right into a puddle of mud and the week after that he had been pushed into a trash can by him. Needless to say… the two weren’t close. So when Professor Goodwitch paired the two of them up for a sparring match, they were ready to brawl.

As Jay was preparing for his matchup against Cardin, he looked over towards his teammates giving him a thumbs up in support. “Kick his ass!” yelled Nora as Ren told her to watch her profanity. Pyrrha gave him a reassuring smile and a wave and he instantly felt more comfortable. After the word go, the two engaged in some pretty intense combat.  
The two of them went blow for blow. Any time Cardin would swing his mace, Jay would block and punch with his two gauntlets. The cycle would repeat each time with the roles often reversing. Cardin had struck hard with his mace, when a spot opened up by his face. Jay swung his fist at him and hit him hard. His opponent became all the more more frustrated and started to swing his mace more furiously. 

While Cardin was more concerned with swinging his mace around like a lunatic, Jay found a perfect opportunity. As the raging lunatic swung his mace at him, he grabbed the end of the weapon, twisted it out of his hands, tossed it to the other side of the room, punched him right in the gut and finished him with a roundhouse kick to the face. He stood over him, placing his foot on top of the other boy’s chest. He clapped his hands together, igniting his flame dust to finish him off. But before he could throw his final punch, Professor Goodwitch had stopped the match.

She had turned towards the rest of the class and lectured on, 

“Students, as you can see Mr. Winchester’s aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Cardin is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match.” She looked over at Cardin disappointedly and continued, 

“Mr. Winchester, I suggest you don’t let your temper control your actions in battle. Or else, you’ll end up how you are now...on the ground like a sitting duck.”

She then turned over towards Jay and offered, 

“Mr. Arc, although you may have won the match, there are still some things you could improve on. I noticed there was a lot of sloppiness in your technique. Perhaps work on that a bit more, so that you can be a bit more successful in future combat.” 

“Yes ma’am.” he said as he was trying to catch his breath.

Before class ended, Professor Goodwitch reminded the class about the Vytal Festival Tournament and how if any of them want to participate they should keep practicing because they will be representing all of Vale. As the bell rang, she also reminded them of their trip to the Forever Fall Forest scheduled for the next day. Cardin got up from his spot on the ground, nudging Jay as he walked past him with an angry look on his face. The other boy walked down from the combat area and met up with Pyrrha, Nora and Ren so that they could head for lunch.

Jay, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora decided to eat lunch with Ruby and her team that afternoon. Everyone got seated He looked around the table, and noticed what each person was doing. Pyrrha and Ren were eating their lunch, Nora and Yang were in heated debate about who was stronger...a beowolf or a boarbatusk; with Ruby listening in with open ears. Blake was reading her novel of the week...something about ninjas; he wasn’t quite sure. And Weiss was… filing her nails; absolutely thrilling. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, but that was soon interrupted with the sound of Cardin Winchester’s callous laughter.

The group turned to find Cardin and his teammates picking on fellow student, Velvet Scarlatina. He was pulling on her rabbit ears while his teammates guffawed at his antics. 

“Please stop!” Velvet pleaded as she tried to mask the pain she was feeling. 

“See guys, I told you it was real.” Cardin declared as he and his goons continued to laugh at the poor girl’s expense.

Pyrrha turned back towards the group and angrily said,

“Atrocious… I can’t stand people like Cardin.”

“You’re not the only one.” Blake agreed, scowling in the bully’s direction. 

“It must be hard being a Faunus.” Yang pondered aloud. As the group shared their disgust with the current situation, Jay had mentally checked out. The only feeling he could feel right now was anger. His mind began to fill with memories of his sister Melanie and how she was constantly harassed for being a Faunus. 

He remembered all the awful things they would say to her, the most popular being, “Horn headed freak!” Seeing Velvet in that much distress, reminded him of those times and his blood started to boil. He couldn’t just sit there watching someone suffer like that. 

“LET’S BREAK HIS LEGS!” Nora yelled, as Ren encouraged her not to get herself in trouble. 

“Trust me, he’s going to be in worse pain once I’m through with him” Jay hissed as he got up from the table to confront Cardin. The group followed him over with Pyrrha in the front; so they could prevent their pal from doing something stupid.

Before the bully could yank on the girl’s ears even more, a fist collided with his nose; breaking him away from the girl. Jay pulled Velvet aside and asked, 

“Are you alright?”

“Feeling better now. Thank you!” she said looking noticeably happier.

“Ok, why don’t you get out of here before they can do anything else to you.” 

The thankful girl nodded and walked away in a hurry. Once she had gotten to safety, he turned his attention back to the assface sitting in front of him.

“What the hell man! Do you have a problem or something? We were just having some fun.” Cardin said while holding his nose.

“Shut up! You need to knock it off before I continue to rearrange your face!” Jay seethed as he pushed Cardin back.

“Oh please, lighten up man. Why don’t you go back to the nerd patrol you were sitting with and leave us be. Besides that filthy Faunus deserved it.” 

“Seriously buddy, you better watch your tongue.” Jay warned, his tone of voice getting more and more enraged.

“ What are you, some kind of weird Faunus lover?” With Cardin’s last sentence, Jay had had enough.

He raised his fist, ready to knock the bastard out like he should’ve done in class earlier. But before he could land a single hit, someone had grabbed his wrist...it was Pyrrha. She moved herself in between the two men and in a soft voice said to her teammate, 

“Don’t do this Jay. If Professor Goodwitch caught you fighting with Cardin, you’ll get detention. Do you want that?” Her words started to sink in and he took his fist away and looked down in cowardice.

“See, I told you he couldn’t do it! He’s such a baby!” Cardin chortled as he walked away with his friends. The other boy, feeling less than thrilled, walked back to the table he was sharing with his friends.

It was later in the day and Jay was listening to one of Professor Oobleck’s lectures about the Faunus Rights Revolution; with the professor moving wildly around the room while doing so. Velvet had decided to speak up in class about how it’s important to remember how Faunus still face discrimination and prejudice for being who they are to this day. She had finished with how we shouldn’t start to get complacent and that we all still have a long way to go in terms of progress. Cardin began to snicker, with the teacher telling him to pipe down and pay attention.

After talking more about the war, the hyperactive professor asked the class about what advantage did the Faunus have over General Lagune and his forces. When he called on Cardin, he couldn’t answer the question, more like he didn’t care about the subject matter at all. Pyrrha then raised her hand and explained to the class,

“It was night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark.” 

“General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched and the general was also outmatched.” Blake added. 

“Excellent work ladies! You’ll both go far in this class if you keep this up!” Professor Oobleck exclaimed joyfully.

“Why is this crap important anyway? It’s not like anyone cares about this stuff.” Cardin said annoyed; while Jay turned back and glared at him. 

“It looks like you have something in common with General Lagune Cardin...you both can’t pay attention. That’s why he failed and that’s why you’re going to fail this class.”   
Blake snapped back and there was a loud round of ooooh’s around the room as the class ate up that drama. The professor asked the class to calm down and as soon as he did...the bell rang.

As Pyrrha got up to leave class, she noticed Jay not getting up from his seat. She figured she needed to talk to him about what happened; she was starting to get worried about him. When everyone left, it was just the two of them left in the classroom. She walked up to the desk he was sitting at and she placed her hands on each side of the desk, getting his attention. He looked up at her as she started to speak, 

“Jay...can we talk about what happened? I know Cardin’s a jerk, but I didn’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Pyrrha I’m fine. See...happy as a clam. Now if you excuse me, I have to get back to our room; I promised Ren I would help him with his laundry.” he said, as he moved out of the desk area and moved over towards the stairs. But she had other plans, she followed him over and blocked his path; he let out an annoyed sigh and said,

“Pyrrha...you heard what I said...I’m fine. Now please, get out of my way. I promised Ren I would help him.” 

“No, I’m not moving until we talk about this. Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve always been cordial. You joke around, you’re relaxed and you’re friendly with everyone. The person I saw in the cafeteria today scared me and I want to know why he snapped like that. So please, tell me...what’s wrong?” she pushed, looking him right in the eyes.

He hated doing this to her, he hated seeing her disappointed in him. He sighed and he started to slowly move to sit on the staircase; patting the spot next to him as a sign for Pyrrha to sit down. Once she got settled, he started to talk, 

“I’m sorry I got angry like that, that wasn’t cool of me. It’s just...I hate people like Cardin. I don’t understand why he thinks he can do that to someone as awesome as Velvet or anyone else for that matter. It just pisses me off.” he seethed, as she nodded and urged him to continue.

“You remember my sister I told you about...Melanie? Well, what I didn't tell you is that...she was adopted. She’s a ram Faunus, my parents adopted her when she was three years old. I was seven back then and ever since that day, I didn’t just have a sister...I had a best friend. When we were younger, I never understood what was going on when she would get picked on for being a Faunus. I was naive, until my parents sat me down and explained to me the hardships the Faunus people have faced over the years. I didn’t fully understand it, but I wanted to try and understand...for her.” he said as he softened up.

Before he could continue, he started to choke up and tears started to fall. Pyrrha placed her hand on his back and told him it was alright; encouraging him to go on, 

“All throughout our lives...people used to make fun of her, for being a Faunus. They would call her awful things and pull on her horns. One time...some people she knew wrote, Go home Faunus, on her locker. It was awful.” he stammered as he started to sob. Pyrrha moved him closer to her shoulder and held him close. 

“Up until now, I had always been able to be there for her. To protect her from those awful people...but now that I’m here and her being back at Signal...I can’t be and that sucks. So when Cardin was doing the same thing with Velvet...I snapped.” he finished, still holding onto his teammate.

They stayed like this for a brief moment, before Jay wiped away the remaining tears from his face; getting up from the staircase. He turned around to face Pyrrha and said,

“Which is why I need to fight Cardin tomorrow...in the Forever Fall Forest. To make sure that he never pulls that crap again...so that nobody else will get hurt.”  
Pyrrha got up from her seat and grabbed his hands. She sighed and said, 

“I know how hard it is...not being able to be there for the people you care about. And I know what happened to your sister was awful. But violence...is that really how you want to solve things? That’s not the way to get your point across. Why don’t you try just talking to Cardin-” 

“I CAN’T PYRRHA.” he snapped, with her being taken aback.

“Violence is the only way that jackass will get it through his thick skull. Don’t you get it Pyrrha...I have to do this!” 

“It’s not the only way Jay! You have a certain responsibility as a leader … setting an example for your teammates and the people around you. What will you be telling people by using violence to stand up for your cause? You’ll just be spreading the cycle of violence...is that really what you want? You’ll not only be setting a bad example to us, your friends and teammates, but what about your sister? Do you really want her to have the message that violence is the only way?” Pyrrha explained, her frustration growing with Jay.

Once she was finished, Pyrrha moved over towards the door and grabbed onto the door handle, but before she could leave, she turned around towards him and said,   
“I’m not your mother, I can’t stop you from fighting Cardin. But I’m hoping… praying… that you will make the right choice. Cardin isn’t the only one who needs to learn to control his temper. I’ll talk to you later Jay.” and as she finished her speech, she left the classroom; he being left alone. 

At this point, he didn’t know what to do. But he decided not to stay in this room any longer, so he left to go take out his frustration in the one place he felt the most at home; the gym.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! :)


	5. The Arc That Everybody Hated But Better Part 2

Bam… Bang… Bash; over and over again, he continued to work the heavy bag. After his fight with Pyrrha, Jay needed to work some of the frustration off. He had been there for a few hours now, doing some cardio on the bike, lifting some weights and now finishing off his workout with the punching bag. He moved his feet in time, punching only when it came closer towards him. 

During his workout, he had thought about what his teammate had said to him, about how he wanted to handle his problem with Cardin. After going through it in his mind, he realized… she was right. If he wanted to stop the harassment that was going on against people like Velvet… people like his sister; than violence isn’t the right way to do it. He knew he had to try talking to Cardin, he just didn’t know how; which made him all the more mad. He continued to hit the bag harder, as his frustration grew.

Even worse, he was a jerk to Pyrrha. He shouldn’t have talked to her like that because all she wanted to do was help. He felt like such a bastard, he didn’t know how he was going to fix things with her. Heck, she may not even forgive him at all. Once he reached the point where his body couldn’t take any more, he gave the heavy bag one last hard punch. As soon as he finished, his knees grew weak and just like that he collapsed onto the floor. He could feel each harsh breath he took, becoming more aware of the pain coursing throughout his body.

After lying on the floor for what seemed like forever, he finally found the strength to get up and he left the gym. He walked back to his room and noticed the door was cracked a bit; he could hear his teammates talking about him. 

“How come Jay hasn’t come back yet? Doesn’t he know we have a field trip tomorrow?” Nora questioned as she jumped up and down on her bed. 

“Yeah, he was supposed to help me with my laundry tonight. It’s not like him to back out of a promise like that.” Ren added in a concerned tone.

From outside the room, he could hear the room grow silent, nobody knew what to say. That is, until Pyrrha spoke up in a vindictive tone, 

“I’m sure Jay knows exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t need us to tell him what to do clearly.” Ren and Nora looked at each other, both decided not to push the issue any further.   
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Nora said landing on her bed with a thud.

Jay hung his head low and closed the door, ensuring no one heard it. He walked over towards the wall beside him, turned his back towards it and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. He wasn’t sure how to make things any better… maybe he wasn’t cut out to be a leader after all. Just as he placed his head in his hands, he heard a voice say to him, 

“Did you get yourself locked out again Jay?” The voice belonging to Ruby.

He looked up at her and shook his head and said, 

“No and besides Ruby… that only happened one time.” Ruby giggled at his response and joined him on the floor. She turned to him and said,   
“Well, is something else bothering you? I’m here to listen!” 

“I messed up Ruby… I messed up badly. I thought I was doing the right thing, but how I wanted to go about it was wrong. All I wanted was for Cardin to stop harassing people like Velvet. I thought beating the crap out him would’ve been the only way for him to get it; but obviously that was a stupid idea. I was so caught up in my own anger, that I never considered any other options. Pyrrha was right, I should’ve just tried to talk to him. I was such a jerk to her Ruby and now she won’t even talk to me. I shouldn’t even be a leader with how I’ve been acting.”

“Nope.”

“What?”

“Nope.”

“Ok Ruby, you’re not making any sense.”

“Nope.”

“Ok you do realize it’s hard to talk to you when you’re like this right?”

“Nope.”

“Ok, I give up.”

“What I mean is no Jay, I don’t think you should give up being a leader for your team just because you made one mistake. You know what to do now right? Then I think you need to try and make things right. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about us anymore Jay; we’re leaders now. It’s our job to set an example for our teammates and we need to learn to admit when we’re wrong, so we can learn from it, instead of dwelling on it. Our teammates come first and we come second. Our teams deserve great leaders… and I think that can be us. Have a good night Jay.”

Once Ruby had finished speaking, she got up from the floor and went back to her room. As she shut the door, Jay got up from the ground with a newfound sense of duty. He was sick of the self doubt and thanks to this talk with Ruby, he knew what he had to do. Tomorrow, he was going to step up as the leader he knew he could be and one that his teammates deserved. Hopefully his teammates would see that, especially Pyrrha. He couldn’t let them down like that again.

He opened the door to his room and noticed all of his teammates had went to sleep for the night. He snuck in quietly, making sure not to disturb anyone and he slowly but surely made it to his bed. He laid back on the bed and before he drifted off to sleep, he smiled to himself and said, “Tomorrow’s a new day.”

The next day, the first years woke up bright and early and once everyone was ready to go they left to go to the Forever Fall forest with Professor Goodwitch. They had just gotten to the forest and everyone took in the beauty of what was surrounding them. The trees were a gorgeous bright red, with the leaves scattered throughout the forest. As they all walked around, Professor Goodwitch reminded them of why they were here. Professor Peach needed each of the students to grab one jar’s worth of sap from the trees in the forest. She told them to make sure to stick by their teammates, since there were a significant amount of Grimm in this forest. Once they were all told to meet back at this spot at four o’clock, the teams had split off to complete their task.

Team JNPR had decided to work with Team RWBY for the day, since they all got along and they thought the task would go much faster that way. Jay had mostly been quiet, since he was trying to find the right time to talk to his teammates. He focused on the task at hand and once he was confident he had the right amount of sap, he closed the lid on his jar; setting it down beside him.

“Hey Jay… Pyrrha, Nora and I are going to go deeper into the forest to see what else we can find.” Ren said with a smile.

“That sounds good guys, we’ll catch up with you later.” Jay replied, as he looked at them and offered a grin in return.

Once their two teammates left with Blake and Yang, it was just Pyrrha and Jay with Ruby and Weiss to the left of them. He figured now was the best time to talk to her, he might not get another chance to do so. Just as he was about to talk to her, he noticed Cardin and his teammates standing on top of a small hill in front of them.   
“Well, if it isn’t the coward with his know it all teammate. Are you gonna stand there like a chicken shit or are we going to finish what we started in the cafeteria yesterday.” the bully barked as his teammates watched behind him.

Pyrrha looked over at Jay, worried that he was going to go through with his threat of knocking some sense into Cardin. Her fears were put to rest however as all he did was walk forward calmly and stopped a bit in front of her. He opened his mouth and proclaimed, 

“I’m sorry Cardin… that’s not happening. If it’s a fist fight you want, you’re not going to get it. I’ve got more important things to do that don’t involve you.”

“COME UP HERE AND FIGHT ME YOU WUSS!!”

“No Cardin, I’m not going to do that. Don’t you get it, violence isn’t going to get us anywhere. Us wailing on each other isn’t going to change the fact that you’re a jerk. If you’d rather talk about it instead, then I’m all ears. If you’re going to continue egging me on, then you can go make like a tree and piss off.” 

Cardin was starting to get more and more ticked, so he decided to resort to plan B. He took a jar of sap he collected and threw it at his enemy’s feet; then he brought out a small box labeled, W. 

“Hope you guys like rapier wasps!” he blurted as he opened the box; the rapier wasps swarmed towards the group. 

Just before the wasps could get any closer, Jay gets in front of Pyrrha and activates his weapon. He clapped his hands together and fires several fireballs towards the pests; killing them instantly.

Once they’re destroyed, he walks up to the hill the bully and his goons are perched on. He looks him right in the eye and whispers, 

“Is that really all you got? Because if so… that’s really pathetic. Now if you excuse me, I have to get back to my friends.” 

Before he could walk away, Cardin decked him right in the nose knocking him on his feet. The obnoxious boy picked his target up off the ground and starts to let loose with his words,

“WHAT...DO YOU THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN ME NOW WITH ALL YOUR FANCY TALK?”

“No… I’m just not going to tolerate your bullshit any longer Cardin.” Before Cardin could throw another punch, suddenly an Ursa came out from the bushes; knocking the two boys over. The brunette’s teammates all ran away, leaving their leader to deal with the creature. 

Cardin gets up from the ground, taking out his mace. He storms over towards it, ready to strike. The ursa however, slaps his weapon out of his hands and pinned the boy to the ground. The bully started to quiver with fear, silently praying for someone to help him. Pyrrha, Weiss and Ruby made it up the hill, watching as the bear was about to strike him once more. The Ursa lifts his paw to strike and before it can finish Cardin off, the creature turns around after feeling an intense heat on its back. The ursa turns around and sees Jay, who had just shot them with his fireballs.

Once the creature got closer to the blonde boy, Jay jumped on his back trying to get him away from Cardin. He tried to stay on for as long as he could, but the ursa flipped him off it's back sending him right to the ground. Jay held his ribs in pain, looking up at the beast. Great… he was going to be in the same position as Cardin and he wasn’t happy about it. But before it could attack him, he noticed Cardin’s mace was thrown at the beast. It didn’t come from Cardin because the mace was too far away from him. He looked behind him and he saw Pyrrha, it immediately clicked in his mind what had happened.

Pyrrha had activated her semblance of polarity, meaning she had control over magnetism. She walked over towards him and offered him her hand. When he got up from the ground he blurted, 

“I’m so sorry Pyrrha, you were right. I was such an as-.”

“I know Jay. We can talk about this later, right now we have to destroy that thing.”

“Right.” he said, giving her a huge smile.

Pyrrha moved quickly, dodging each swipe of the grimm’s paw. When she had a clear opening for its legs, she drew her spear and she spliced them clean off; making them unable to move. Once she got out of the way, she yelled over to her partner, 

“Finish him now!”

He nodded and started to run over to where he had to be. Once he got in front of the beast, he clapped his hands together and a big gold cage formed around him and the Ursa.

"Is he nuts? Why would he want to be even closer to that thing?" Weiss questioned aloud.

"I think that's the way he wants it to be." Pyrrha responded.

Jay clapped his hands once more and proceeded to shoot more fireballs at the Ursa and this time it had nowhere to hide. It continued to take all Jay gave it, until it couldn't take it anymore. As soon as he saw he could finish it off, Jay jumped into the air and gave the grimm one more fiery punch to the head. Just like that, the Ursa fell to the ground and disintegrated into small piles of ash.

He walked away from the scattered remains of the grimm and walked over towards Cardin and reached out to help him up. The bully accepted his help and once he got up on his own two feet, he stammered out

, “Holy crap Jay… you and Pyrrha… that was something else.”

“Cardin… do not ever mess with me or my team ever again. While you’re at it, why don’t leave Velvet and the other Faunus alone. You’ll hear from me again if you don’t. Are we clear?”

“Crystal.” 

After Cardin ran away to go find the teammates that ditched him, Jay slumped down to the ground feeling tired. Pyrrha rushed over and helped her teammate up off the ground. They gave each other a small smile, while Ruby and Weiss made their way over to the pair.

"I didn't know you had that in you Jay. Your semblance isn't as terrible as I thought it would be." Weiss commented.

"Means a lot coming from you Princess." Jay responded.

Ruby looked over towards Pyrrha and said, 

“What about you Pyrrha, how were you able to lift Cardin’s mace like that?”

“You have your speed, Weiss has her glyphs, Jay has his cages… my semblance is polarity.”

“You can control poles?”

“No you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism.” Weiss retorted.

“Magnets are cool.” Ruby said to herself after Weiss corrected her initial thought about Pyrrha’s semblance. The four of them shared a quick laugh and they all headed back towards the meeting spot to head home.

It had been a few hours since everyone had returned from the Forever Fall forest and everyone was exhausted; everyone except Jay. He felt significantly better after resting for a little bit and he decided to take advantage of his newfound energy. He decided to head down to the gym to get a last minute workout in. He got changed into some black workout shorts, black running shoes and a white sleeveless workout shirt. The gym was empty when he got there and he took full advantage. He had done some cardio on the treadmill while listening to some rock music. Once he was done with that, he moved over to the weight lifting area to work on his chest. He got on the bench press and started lifting.

After finishing his set, he could hear a voice off in the distance, 

“Do you need a sparring partner?” He looks up and smiles, it was Pyrrha. 

He invited her over and the two started to wrap their hands in hand wrap. As they’re wrapping their hands, Jay spoke up and said, 

“Pyrrha...I really sorry with how I treated you yesterday. You were right, how I wanted to solve my problem was not the right way and I should not have snapped at you like that. I really hope you can forgive me.”

“I need to tell you that I only called you out like that because I care. I was never trying to be insensitive or mean.”

“I know Pyrrha, I know. Does this mean that you’ll forgive me?”

“Apology accepted, but on one condition.”

“Really? What’s that?”

“We have to promise that we can go to each other when something is bothering us and not be afraid to call the other out. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Once they shook hands, they headed into the ring. They started to spar and Jay thought he had this match in the bag. However, Pyrrha proved to be quite the opponent. It was a hard fought match, but she ended up flipping him onto the mat. 

“Ok… you win.” he grunted as she was pinning him. She let out a small chuckle and he did the same. He was so happy they were friends again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! :)


	6. Lessons Learned

The weekend finally came and students from the other schools had just started to arrive for the Vytal Festival. The city of Vale had become more lively with all the celebratory activities taking place and everyone was eager to explore the city. It had been a few days since the festivities began and Jay, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren were getting ready to go out and enjoy the day. 

Ren was going to check out the local tea shop, Pyrrha and Jay were going to check out the weapon supply store and Nora… she was going for the food. Most of them were finished getting ready, except for their team leader, as he was the last to get in the shower. He quickly threw on his usual outfit and quickly styled his hair to how he wanted it. Once he was finished, he walked over towards his teammates and proclaimed, 

“So, who’s ready for some team bonding?”

“ Well we’ve been waiting for you for like twenty minutes now Mr. IWokeUpTooLate. I want to go and get as much food as I can!” Nora asserted.

“I’m ready when you guys are. I need to try and make it to that fifty percent off sale at Tea Haven.” Ren added, looking at his watch.

“Let’s get going, so we don’t waste away the day.” Pyrrha nodded.

Jay smiled at his team and once they gathered everything they needed, they headed out the door.

Once Team JNPR arrived in Vale, they all went their separate ways. Nora went to go gorge herself at all the local food vendors, Ren went to his tea sale and Pyrrha and Jay went to look at some supplies for their weapons. They looked around the store for quite a while, pointing out different sales to each other in case if it was something the other wanted. Jay found some hand wrap that he needed for his weapon and some protein bars. He walked over towards his teammate and asked,

“Are you finished in here Pyrrha? Because I was thinking of us stopping for ice cream before we meet up with Ren and Nora.”

“I’m just about finished. I found a great deal on some protein powder I like and I want to try and stock up on it. After I get what I need, we can go.” Pyrrha answered.

“Sounds good. I’ve already paid for my stuff, I’m going to go wait outside. Is that ok?”

“Sure! I’ll meet you outside.”

Once he confirmed his plan with his teammate, he took his bags and headed outside of the store. As he walked, he took out his scroll to see if he had gotten any messages from his other two teammates. Because he was looking down at his scroll, he didn’t notice the two girls in front of him and he accidentally bumped into them. Before he could tell them off, he stopped himself because it was Yang and the Schnee girl. He looked at the two of them, offering them both a grin and saying, 

“Hey guys! Sorry about running into you like that… I’m such a clutz. You look like you’ve lost something. Is it anything I can help with?”

“Actually, we’re looking for Blake. She’s been missing since Friday and we have no idea where she could be.” Yang said worriedly.

“She probably ran off with that monkey boy. It’s typical for filthy Faunus to flock together.” Weiss said aloud, not realizing the mood of the moment had shifted.

When he heard her say what she had just uttered, he dropped all of his belongings onto the ground with his fists clenched. Both girls looked at him and they wondered what was going on.

“How could you say that, how could you say something so cruel… about your own teammate!?” he seethed while looking at the Schnee girl right in the eye.

Weiss was stunned, not really sure what to say. Regardless, she decided to open her mouth anyway, 

“I’m not being cruel! I know Faunus well enough to know what they’re like. They’re nothing but liars, thugs and murderers!”

“That’s not even remotely true and you know it! Not all Faunus are bad people. There are a few bad eggs out there sure, but not everyone who is a Faunus is inherently bad!” Jay said with frustration in his voice.

“Oh yeah? How can you account for the White Fang and the blood they’ve spilt with my family? Hmmm? How can you sit there and tell me that what they did to my family was ok? How can you just say that I don’t know what the Faunus are like, when I clearly do?” Weiss finished.

He looked at her, thinking of what he was going to say next. He thought about it for a brief moment, until he finally figured out what he wanted to say. He moved closer to her and started to speak,

“Look, I’m sorry about what happened with your family. I know how hard that must’ve been for you and I’m sorry you had to experience that. But that doesn’t give you the right to judge an entire race of people based on the actions of a few. You know, when you were probably justifying your prejudice to Blake, you probably never asked her for her side of the story did you? I couldn’t imagine how hard it must’ve been for her, yet you only want to talk about how this affects you. Maybe if you had decided to hear her out after she just listened to you, you probably wouldn’t be in this situation right now!”

He took his scroll out of his pocket, looked through his photos until he came across the one he wanted. He gave the Schnee girl his scroll and continued with what he had to say,

“ You see that awesome person in the photo? That’s my sister Melanie. She’s not just my sister, she’s my best friend. All throughout our childhood, I would always try and protect her from the people who would harass her for being a Faunus. What you’re doing right now Schnee, you’re no better than those bullies from long ago. Based on your own prejudice, are you saying my sister is a liar, a thug or a murderer?”

“No, I would never say that about your sister ever!” Weiss stammered out.

“But you had no problem just now saying that about your teammate or even someone you didn’t even know. Why would your prejudice be any different against my sister? Schnee, do you not get it? It’s because of ignorance like yours that tells people like Cardin that it’s ok to discriminate against people like Velvet, like Blake or even my sister. Even worse, if you continue to live in ignorance you’re just going to end up pushing everyone away from you.”

As he finished up what he had to say, he heard Pyrrha come out of the store. He looked back at her and she waved him over. He turned back towards them, heaved a heavy sigh and said,

“Look Schnee, I don’t expect you to understand what I had to say right away. I would like to think that you would at least consider what I’ve said here today. Otherwise, I don’t think you’ll ever be able to repair your friendship with Blake. I’ll see you both back at the dorms… good luck with the rest of your search.”

After he parted ways with the two women he walked over towards Pyrrha, who was waiting for him by the weapon supply store.

“Hey Jay! I got enough of this stuff to last me for the whole year. Did you still want to get the ice cream you were talking about earlier?” Pyrrha said happily.

“Yeah… sure.” Jay grumbled.

“Are you ok? You seem awfully tense after your conversation with Yang and Weiss.”

“Why don’t I talk to you about it over ice cream?”

“Ok. But we better get over there before the shop closes.” she said as the two partners started to head over to where they needed to go.

It had been a few days since Blake found her way back to her friends. Everyone was happy to have her back and while Weiss felt the same way, she couldn't shake what Jay said to her out of her head. She never before thought what she was saying was hurtful to anyone, but after talking to Jay yesterday, she was starting to realize her words had consequences. She wanted to talk to Blake about it, but she wasn't quite sure how to bring it up. This was all so confusing, it was driving her crazy. But, she had no time to keep thinking about it now, as she and her team were heading into town.

Once Weiss, Ruby, Blake and Yang made their way into town, they started to take in more of the Vytal Festival celebrations going on. They then decide to check out some shops, to see if there was anything worth buying. When they made their way over to a small clothing store, they could see a small group of guys about their age hanging around. As they walked past them, they could hear one of them say,

"What do you got under that bow there girlie? It doesn't look right to me."

"Why don't you leave her alone pal. She doesn't need to answer to you." Yang said.

"Whoa whoa whoa there, just making an observation is all. Now, what do you got under there? You wouldn't happen to be a Faunus would you?" the stranger said.

"You don't need to answer to them Blake." Ruby assured.

"Why don't you mind your own business little girl. Well, if you're not going to tell us, why don't we take that bow right off your head!" he said, moving closer towards a very stressed out Blake,

That's when Weiss realized how much of a jerk she had been. Just days ago, she had been acting no different then these three buffoons; she wasn't any better than them. She could see her friend looking so distressed and it broke her heart. She had to change and it had to start now. She turned her attention to the group of guys and made her way between them and her friend. She looked them dead in the eye and said,

"You three better move along and leave my friend alone."

"What are you going to do about it small fry?" the leader of the group spoke up.

"Well, you have two options. You could either leave now, or, I smoke every last one of you to oblivion. What's it going to be boys?" Weiss said, as she pulled her rapier out.

The gang looked nervous seeing Weiss's weapon, as they themselves were not armed. They looked at each other and they decided to leave before they got their asses kicked. They apologized for ruining their day and they made a run for it.

Weiss sheathed her weapon and turned around to see Blake look at her surprised. Weiss made her way over to her teammate and wrapped her arms around her. Blake took in her teammate's embrace and watched as she pulled away. Weiss looked into her teammate's eyes and said,

"Blake... I'm sorry for all the things I've said to you the past little while. I've realized that I was wrong for all of the things I've said and I know now that it can hurt the people I care about. I don't understand everything, but I'm willing to learn everything I need to know in order to understand you better. Will you forgive me?"

"Yeah, I forgive you Weiss. You don't know how much this means to me to hear you say that." Blake said, close to tears.

The girls pulled each other close for another embrace, as Yang and Ruby joined in to make it a group hug.

 

The next day, the students still had some time off before classes the next day. But instead of doing anything too adventurous, Team JNPR decided to stay in and relax. Ren was drinking some of the herbal tea he had gotten on sale, while he was reading a book on how to grow your own tea leaves. Nora was passed out on her bed, stuck in a deep sleep. She had been gorging herself on all the sweets she bought yesterday and today she was paying the price; a sore stomach and the never ending desire to sleep.

Jay and Pyrrha on the other hand were catching up on their homework that was due tomorrow for Professor Oobleck’s class. They were helping each other so that they can finish their work faster and sure enough their teamwork paid off.

“Now that we got that done, I’m going to get my protein shakes ready for tomorrow.”

Pyrrha chimed as she got up from her seat and went over to the mini fridge the group kept in their room.

Jay closed the textbook he was studying, got up from his desk and went to go lay down on his bed. Before he could get truly comfortable, he heard a knock at the door. He looked towards his teammates, all of them were too busy to answer the person on the other side. He got up from his bed and opened the door. There on the other side, was the Schnee girl. He stared at her for a brief moment, but before he could speak she had already started talking,

“Hey. I was wondering if I could talk to you? Are you busy right now… it’s about the other day.”

“No not at all, I’m free. How about we go for a walk?” he said as she nodded her head in agreement. He grabbed his scroll, told his team he would be back later and he headed out the door with the white haired girl.

The walk had been silent for the most part, the two of them shared the occasional look at each other. They had been walking for about thirty minutes before they reached their destination. There was a grassy hill, situated within the school grounds. Both of them thought this would be a good place to rest. They sat within inches of each other, but the silence persisted. However, it was broken when she started to speak,

“Look, I’m not good at this. But I wanted to tell you that… you were right. I was being a jerk to Blake and it was based on my own prejudice. What happened to my family in the past because of the White Fang was awful. But that doesn’t give me an excuse to be discriminatory to Faunus.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re taking some damn responsibility Schnee.” Jay chuckled.

“We were able to find Blake after you left. We got into some trouble with these jerks trying to take Blake's bow off. I was able to get them away from her and afterwards we had a bit of a heart to heart. I apologized for how I've been talking to her and I told her that I'm willing to try and understand her better.” 

“Well, I’m glad you and Blake are on good terms again.”

“Yeah, I am too.” Weiss uttered.

Weiss looked over at her companion with a hint of gratitude and continued to speak,

“Hey Jay?”

“What is it Schnee?”

“I wanted to say, thanks. For helping me come to my senses.”

“Hey it’s no problem. Besides, who else was gonna get you to stop being so stubborn.”

“Oh ha ha. Your humor slays me.” the white haired girl said snarkily.

The two of them noticed how late it was, so they decided to head back to campus. When they got back to their dorms, they were about to head into their respective rooms when Jay called out,

“You know, you’re cooler than I thought you were Schnee. We’ll have to hang out again sometime.”

“Sure that sounds great. I was wrong about you too Jay… you’re not nearly as annoying as I thought you were. By the way, you can call me Weiss you know? You don’t need to call me by my last name. Goodnight.”

“Night Weiss.” he whispered as they both shut the doors to their respective rooms. 

Jay couldn’t believe it. The one person who he thought he wouldn’t get along with the most, turned out to be someone he could call a friend. He’s learned a lot so far here at Beacon Academy, but he couldn’t wait to see what else was in store for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Special thanks to my friend Tamy for helping me with this chapter!


	7. The Weekend and Some Group Bonding Part One

BEEP… BEEP… BEEP… BEEP. Jay’s perfect slumber had been interrupted by the sound of the alarm. He slammed down on the snooze button and lifted himself up into a sitting position. Rubbing his eyes, he looked around the room and noticed Ren and Pyrrha were already awake. The only one who wasn’t was Nora. 

Jay shared a look with his two other teammates, all of them knowing they needed Nora awake. So, he took the pillow from his bed and threw it directly at her head. She woke up with a jolt and gave her teammate the death glare and shouted, 

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR! IT’S THE WEEKEND. CAN’T WE JUST SLEEP IN?”

“As much as I would love to catch some extra z’s Nora, we all promised to go to the library to study.” Jay reminded his ginger friend.

“I WAS LYING WHEN I MADE THAT PROMISE.”

“Well, a promise is still a promise Nora. You and I both know we could’ve done better on the last test in Oobleck’s class. Ren and Pyrrha offered to help us study and I don’t want us failing the next test. Now are you coming or what Nora?”

“UGGGH… fine, you win Jay. But the next time you wake me up this early on the weekend, there will be HELL TO PAY!” Nora finished as she got up from her bed and headed towards the bathroom to get ready.

Once everyone had finished getting ready for the day, they headed straight for the library. As they walked down the hall towards their destination, Jay couldn’t help but think of how the school year had been so far. He was doing fairly decent in his classes, although there was the occasional misstep in his academic performance. He liked his teammates, he made some good friends and he was actually starting to get along with Weiss; which he never even expected to happen. With the second semester starting this past week, he couldn’t wait to see what was in store for him and his team.

Once they got to the library, they found a spot off in the corner for them to study. Ren grabbed a large textbook off the shelf and flipped through it’s many pages. Nora sat down next to her partner and instantly fell asleep with her head on the table. Jay shook his head and chuckled at her antics. He decided to let her rest for a bit before he would start bugging her to study again. He sat down next to Pyrrha and got out his textbook, starting to read the chapters they had been assigned for next class.

It had been a couple of hours since the group had started studying. Nora still hadn’t awoken from her slumber and Jay had given up trying to get her to do otherwise. One thing that changed about the atmosphere of the library was that Ruby and her team had arrived to play a board game. Needless to say, it became less quiet when they arrived. But, the extra noise didn’t bother Team JNPR at all.

Seeing Ruby and Yang have so much passion for their game made Jay smile. It reminded him of the games he and his sister would play together when they were younger. They used to play the same board game Ruby, Yang, Weiss and Blake were playing and it was something they used to do together quite often. Games were won, they were lost, but at the end of the day it was something they both really enjoyed; spending quality time together as siblings. Thinking about those memories made him miss her, but he knew she was ok back at Signal. He wasn’t too worried, he knew she was one tough cookie.

Jay decided he had enough of studying for now and he closed his textbook. He told his teammates he’d be back and he started to head over towards the table Ruby and her team were sitting at. Once he arrived at their table he started to speak,

“Hey ladies! How’s the game going?”

“It’s going pretty good!” Ruby chimed.

“I’m not sure you could handle this game Jay. Besides, it requires a certain tactical cunning that I seriously doubt you posses.” Weiss teased.

“Um… you attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago.” Yang added while Weiss looked at her in slight annoyance.

“Hehe, if you guys didn’t already have four players I would’ve asked to join. Besides princess, you’re looking at someone who’s been known to kick ass at this game. So yeah, I got the right skills. Don’t be so quick to doubt me.” 

“Well, the next time we play this game, you’ll have to join us sometime and put your money where your mouth is.” Weiss challenged with a smirk on her face.

“Sounds like a plan Weiss. Anyways, I better get back to studying, I don’t want to fail the next test in Oobleck’s class. Enjoy your game!” Jay said as he was getting ready to leave. But before he could head over back towards his own table. He was interrupted by Sun Wukong, someone he had seen hanging around Blake, and beside him was someone he’d never seen before.

Sun said hello to the group and introduced them to his friend and teammate, Neptune Vasilias. Jay walked over and said,

“Hey, welcome to Beacon! I’m Jay and over there are my teammates, Ren, Nora and Pyrrha.”

“Thanks man. Aren’t libraries for reading?” Neptune questioned as he saw the board game on the table.

“THANK YOU!” Ren shouted in agreement, which had gotten Nora to wake up from her deep sleep. She asked where the pancakes are.

Neptune noticed Weiss sitting at the table and walked over towards her and uttered, 

“How are you doing today… snow angel?”

“I’m fine thanks. But why don’t you go try those pickup lines on somebody that might actually want to listen to them.” Weiss offered, leaving the blue haired boy speechless. This got Jay chuckling to himself at just how savage Weiss could be.

After more questions from Sun, Blake decided to leave her teammates to their board game and she headed back up to the dorms. With her gone, Sun and Neptune decided to meet up with their teammates and do something with them. Without a fourth player for their game, Ruby decided to improvise,

“Hey Jay! Did you want to take Blake’s place as Vale? We could really use a fourth member.”

“Uhhh… I don’t know. I think my teammates probably want me to keep studying.” Jay said, unsure.

“Actually, I think we’ve done enough studying for the day. Ren and Nora are going for pancakes and I’m going to head up back to our room to take a nap. So, if you want to join their game Jay it’s fine.” Pyrrha chimed in as she walked on past them to head up to her room, with Ren and Nora leaving as well.

“Well… ok then! I’ll be your fourth player! Just know Weiss, I’ll be coming after Vacuo with a vengeance!” Jay said as he sat down with the group.

“Bring it on Jay! I’ll be running you out of this game so fast.” Weiss retaliated.

“Enough with the banter you two. Let’s get back to the game!” Yang suggested.

The weekend came to an end and classes were back in session. Everybody was in Professor Port’s class; listening to one of his lectures that felt like it would last a lifetime. Everybody hoped and prayed this class would come to an end soon. As the clock struck four, the bell rang and class was over. Before anyone could leave, Professor Port reminded them about their assigned reading and the quiz they would be having on it at the end of the week. Once he was finished, he let the students out of class.

As Jay was about to leave, he remembered he borrowed a pen from Weiss. He turned over towards her and exclaimed,

“Hey Weiss. You forgot your pen!”

“Thanks. With the way that lecture was going, I wasn’t going to remember anything else.” Weiss said with a laugh.

“Yeah… but anyways I have to get going. Pyrrha and I are going to meet up with Ren and Nora to go fishing. Catch ya later Weiss.” 

“I’ll see you around Jay!” she replied as she too caught up with her teammates. He wondered what they were up to, but he decided not to press and he went to go meet up with his partner for their outing with their teammates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	8. The Weekend and Some Group Bonding Part Two

Down by Beacon Academy, there was a small lake area where students could relax when they weren’t in class. Jay had noticed this spot several times during his morning jogs and it had given him an idea. He was looking for something he and his team could do together and when he saw that lake area he thought of the perfect activity; fishing. It was something he used to do with his family back home and he wanted to share his love for the sport with his teammates.

Once he and Pyrrha joined up with Ren and Nora after class, they had went back to their room to get some supplies. Jay got the fishing poles and the bait earlier at a hardware store in town. Pyrrha grabbed some drinks for everybody, while Nora got the snacks. Ren tried to get her to pick some snacks that were healthier, but she insisted otherwise. After getting all their stuff together, they headed out the door and started their short walk to the lake.

After a fifteen minute walk, they finally made it. They each picked a fishing pole and Jay taught them how to put the bait on their hook and how to cast their rod. Once they all found a spot on the dock to sit, they cast their rods out and the waiting began. As they waited patiently for one of them to get a bite, they sat in a comfortable silence; the only noise to be heard was the crunch coming from Nora and her chips.

It had since been a couple of hours since they started fishing and the sun was starting to set, leaving a warm glow coming off from the lake. None of them had caught anything except for when Nora thought she caught something, but it turned out to be a boot. At this point, they all had their fishing rods hanging off the dock, hoping and praying someone would catch something. Deciding to break their comfortable silence, Pyrrha chimed in saying,

“Hey Jay, what made you want to take us fishing today?”

“Well, it was something my family and I would do a lot in the summer. I grew up on a farm out in the country and not too far away from where we were, there was a small lake. So when my parents had time off from being a huntsman/huntress duo, they would take my sister and I out there with a picnic lunch to go fishing. It was awesome, even when we didn’t catch anything. Lately though, I haven’t done much fishing… not since my parents passed away. So, I thought this was something we could all do together. To try and show you guys something I love to do.” he said as his voice started to falter, remembering all the good times he had with his parents.

Pyrrha started to notice the change in mood and she thought her next question would maybe help the situation.

“So, what were your parents like Jay?” she inquired.

Jay looked over towards his partner and smiled, noticing her interest. He wiped away at his eyes and started to speak,

“They were the best parents anyone could ask for. Even though they were out on quests most days, they always made it a point to spend time with me and Melanie; making sure we knew how much they loved us… even when they couldn’t be there. My mom was a tough cookie, she was kind and generous. But if anybody messed with her or her family, she’d go all mama bear on them. My dad was a quiet guy. But when he spoke, there always was a sense that everything he said was important. He taught me everything I know about martial arts with my mom helping every so often. Yeah, they were the best.” he said as he lowered his head, his eyes beginning to fill with tears.

What happened next surprised Jay, all three of his teammates wrapped themselves around him. Once the shock wore away, he allowed the embrace and he pulled them all closer together. They separated after staying together like that for a while. Nora turned towards her blonde haired friend and said,

“You’re not alone in this you know? Ren and I both lost our parents too. It’s hard, but we want to make sure you never feel like you’re alone in this ok? You have Ren and I and Pyrrha, you’re not alone in this anymore.” 

“Nora’s right Jay. We’re all here for each other if the other needs it, don’t ever forget that.” Ren added.

“Thanks guys. This has already made me feel loads better. Ren and Nora, I’m sorry about you guys losing your parents. But don’t worry, I’m always going to be there for you guys too.” Jay declared as his team looked at him with tear stained smiles all around.

Being caught up in all this emotion, the group didn’t notice one of the fishing rods starting to bob and it almost fell into the lake. Pyrrha had turned around in time and she reached out and grabbed the rod. Reeling in the object with all her might, she was able to pull it up with ease. Right there on the hook, was a small fish. Looks like this fishing trip was a success after all.

Pyrrha looked at the fish and started to laugh out loud, her teammates looking at her in confusion. 

“Hey Pyrrha, why are you laughing? It’s just a fish.” Nora giggled out in confusion.

“Oh sorry, it’s just that… it’s hard for me back home to have this kind of down time; especially with other people.” Pyrrha answered after her laughter had settled.

“Why is that Pyrrha? Don’t you have anybody you can hang out with back at home?” Jay pondered.

Pyrrha looked at her teammates in awe, nobody had shown her this type of care before besides her parents. She felt like she could open up to them. She took a deep breath and when she was ready, Pyrrha started to speak,

“I’ve been blessed with incredible talents and opportunities… I’m constantly surrounded by love and praise. But when you’re placed on a pedestal like that for too long, you become separated from the people who put you there in the first place. Everyone assumes I’m too good for them… that I’m on a level they simply can’t attain. It’s become hard to form any sort of meaningful relationships with people.”

As she continued to speak, she took a look at her teammates and smiled. 

“That’s what I love about you guys. When I met the three of you, you weren’t like the others. You all took the time to get to know the real me and not some idealized version that most people only want to know. It’s thanks to you guys that I’ve been able to form friendships that will last a lifetime. For that, I’ll always be grateful.”

When Pyrrha finished her speech, she got pulled into another group hug with her teammates. 

“I felt like another one of these was in order.” Jay said as he pulled his partner and their teammates closer.

“Yeah you’re right.” Pyrrha said as her smile grew bigger.

It was starting to get late and they needed to be back at their dorm for a certain time. So once their group hug ended, Pyrrha released the fish back into the lake and they packed up their stuff. After everything they brought with them was packed up, they headed back towards campus so that they wouldn’t miss curfew. 

When they got back to their dorm Nora immediately passed out on her bed, while Ren went to go use the bathroom. Jay and Pyrrha took a seat across from each other, sitting on their respective beds. 

“This was exactly what everyone needed, thank you Jay.” Pyrrha said in a soft voice, trying to not wake up Nora from her slumber.

“It’s no problem. I’m just glad I got to do that with you guys.” Jay replied in an equally soft tone.

Once Ren had returned from the bathroom, Jay decided that he needed to get ready for bed. So he got up from his sitting position and headed for the bathroom. As he walked towards his destination, he couldn’t help but feel thankful to be placed on a team with such amazing people. He hoped nothing would ever tear them apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> A/N: I decided to move the speech Pyrrha made to Jaune at the dance here, because I felt like it fit better in this context rather than the previous one. I also wanted to make it more about her entire team, instead of just focusing on one of the teammates. It was to help show her bond with all three of them.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading! :)


	9. Dance, Dance Part One

Combat class was back in session and boy were the all in for a real treat. One by one, Pyrrha had taken out each member of Team CRDL with ease. Jay was amazed at what his teammate could do and he watched her in awe the entire time she had fought. The way she fought was incredible, every movement made with the utmost precision. Every strike, every dodged attack was made with such grace that he didn’t really know how else to describe it; it was beautiful. She made fighting look like an art form.

Once Pyrrha’s sparring match had finished, Jay got up from his seat and started to clap.

“WOOHOO!! That was awesome Pyrrha, way to show what Team JNPR is all about!!” he cheered from the stands.

“Mr. Arc, I know you’re proud of your teammate… but can you please sit down so that I can address the class?” Professor Goodwitch bellowed.

“No problem Professor!” he said, sitting back down beside his other two teammates.

“Alright, now I know that’s a tough act to follow but we have time for one more sparring match. Any volunteers?” she questioned the entire class.

Jay looked around the room, nobody was in a hurry to spar. He didn’t blame them though, as Professor Goodwitch put it earlier, his teammate was a hard act to follow. Blake had been called upon after Professor Goodwitch noticed she had been docile the last few classes. Now that he thought about it, he noticed Blake hadn’t quite been herself lately. He wondered why that was. He didn’t want to bug her and while they hung out they weren’t super close. Still, he just hoped she was alright.

He was taken out of his thoughts when a random student, who he had heard being called Mercury, volunteered to spar. As soon as Professor Goodwitch asked him who he would like to fight, the grey haired boy pointed back towards Pyrrha. Jay was concerned, he didn’t want his teammate to exert herself too much and besides… why did this guy want to fight Pyrrha so bad? He was left with more questions than answers, but before he could think about the topic more, the match had begun.

But the match quickly ended before it even had a chance to get going. After a very short sparring match, Mercury decided to forfeit. This surprised everyone, including Jay. He wondered why this guy would choose to fight Pyrrha if he already knew they would be leagues apart. It just didn’t make any sense. Although he was even more confused than before, Jay decided it would be best to keep an eye on that guy. He didn’t trust him.

“That is all for today. And remember the dance is this weekend, but you have your first mission on Monday.” Professor Goodwitch exclaimed as everyone started to head on out the door.

Ren and Nora decided to go for a small hike on a trail located behind the school, so that left Jay and Pyrrha alone for a few hours. Because of this, he decided to ask his red haired friend if she wanted to go for a quick workout. He waited for her outside the classroom, noticing she was talking to Professor Goodwitch; she was probably telling Pyrrha how good she did in today’s class.

After Pyrrha finished speaking with their professor, she walked out into the hallway spotting her blonde haired teammate waiting for her. She walked over towards him and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. He lifted his head and gave her a smile, acknowledging her presence. They had started to head down the hallway when Jay spoke up and asked,

“So Pyrrha, you may not be in the mood to do this particular activity after all that fighting… But do you wanna go down to the gym for a quick workout with me?”

“I’d be happy too! I need to get in some cardio to cool down from all the excitement from class earlier.” she replied with a huge smile on her face.

“Cool, how about we go get changed into some workout clothes and then head down?” he said looking towards the stairs.

“Sounds good Jay.” she nodded.

Once they got changed into some better clothes, they headed down to the gym. Pyrrha and Jay started off with some cardio to get their blood pumping. Afterwards they did some lifting with the bench press, with the two of them having a fun competition to see who could reach their set goal first. Finally to finish their workout, Pyrrha did some light cardio on the bike to cool down; while Jay did some light work with the heavy bag.

After their workout, the two of them sat together on a mat inside the gym to do some stretching. As they were stretching out their muscles, there was silence between the two teammates… but it wasn’t awkward. There was something nice about how both of them felt so comfortable around each other, to the point where they could just sit in silence and feel relaxed.

However, that silence was short lived when Jay decided to ask his teammate something,

“So Pyrrha, do you have a date to the dance yet?”

“No actually… I haven’t really thought about it that much to be honest with you.”

“Really,how come? I’m sure there are plenty of people who would want to take you to the dance.”

“That’s the problem Jay, nobody had asked me. So I didn’t really think about the dance that much until now. What about you, don’t you have a date?” she asked.

“Nope, I don’t have a date either. I’ve been too focused on studying and working out to think about that.” he said with a grin.

Jay thought to himself for a moment and after thinking it over, he had an idea. He looked over towards Pyrrha and offered,

“Hey, we both don’t have dates right? Well why don’t we go to the dance together as friends? We’d have more fun together than alone and I heard Ren’s taking Nora as a friend date too; think of it as a team outing. What do you say Pyrrha Nikos, will you let me be the best friend date you’ve ever had?”

“Of course, I would be honored to go to the dance with you by my side.” Pyrrha giggled as she stood up from the mat, with Jay following suit.

When they both stood up, Pyrrha noticed a cramp starting to form in her leg and she winced a bit in pain. Her teammate noticed this and put his back towards her, bent over and said,

“Hop on, I’ll get you back to our room in one piece.”

She looked over at her teammate and giggled to herself. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he grabbed her legs, while making sure he kept his balance while carrying her. Once he made sure she was secure, he started to head towards their dorm room with his partner resting her head on his shoulder.

The night of the dance had arrived and Team JNPR were finishing up getting ready. Jay and Ren were helping each other with their ties and making sure everything about how they looked was proper. Ren was wearing a hot pink suit shirt, a black bow tie, a black suit jacket and pants, with black dress shoes. Jay on the other hand was wearing a black suit shirt, a white tie, white suspenders, black suit pants and black dress shoes. Both were looking rather snazzy.

Jay turned towards his male teammate and said, 

“So Ren, when are you going to ask Nora out? I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

“Jay, Nora is just my friend.”

“Whatever you say man. All I know is I’m eventually going to be invited to the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Lie Ren.” Jay snickered as Ren gave him a light slap on the shoulder.

The two men heard a knock at the door, with Ren allowing the people on the other side to enter. The door opened and Ren and Jay’s jaws dropped to the floor; their teammates looked stunning. Nora wearing a simple and short pink dress, while Pyrrha wore an exquisite floor length red dress. Both guys could not believe their luck.

“You both look pretty.” Jay said to his female teammates.

“Thanks, you and Ren clean up pretty well too. Shall we all head downstairs?” Pyrrha responded as her teammates all nodded in agreement.

Once they arrived to the dance they were greeted by Yang at the front of the ballroom.

“Welcome to the dance guys. You all look amazing!” the blonde haired girl said with a smile.

“Thanks Yang! You look not so bad yourself. Hey Yang, how’s Blake doing? I know she wasn’t feeling so great and we’re all worried about her.” Jay asked.

“Oh, you'll find out later tonight. Have fun guys!” Yang said as Team JNPR all headed further into the ballroom. Tonight was going to be a fun night and Jay couldn’t wait to experience it with his team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	10. Dance, Dance Part Two

It had been a little while since the dance started and everyone was having a good time. Ren and Nora had been attached to the hip all night, drinking punch and sharing the occasional dance. Jay and Pyrrha had shared a few dances together throughout the night and both thought the other was a wonderful dancer. In all honesty, Jay had learned to dance by watching his parents and grandparents dance at various family gatherings. He was amazed with how two people could flow together so perfectly like that and it always stuck with him.

After they were finished dancing together, he and his red haired companion made their way over towards the punch bowl. There, standing awkwardly in her high heels was Ruby, who looked completely out of her element.The two of them looked at each other and acknowledged they should go talk to their friend. When they got to the punch bowl, Jay got Ruby’s attention by saying,

“Dances aren’t really your thing are they Ruby?”

“Yeah, they’re not really my scene. Having to wear heels is the WORST. I still don’t understand how Weiss can fight in these.” Ruby agonized.

“Well you look very lovely tonight Ruby.Cheers to being here with friends.” Pyrrha said as she and her two friends raised their glasses to the evening.

As they were drinking their punch, they could all see Blake turning away Sun as her dance partner. He looked displeased, but he respected her wishes and went to go talk to his teammates for a bit. They all saw her heading towards a certain golden haired beauty wearing the white dress, but she looked nervous… almost freezing in her tracks. Jay put two and two together, Blake wanted to dance with Yang she was just too nervous to ask her.

“Hey guys, I’m going over to talk to Blake. She looks like she could use some help.” Jay said with a grin.

“Ok, I’ll stay here and chat with Ruby for a while. See you around teammate!” Pyrrha replied.

"Thanks for going over there Jay. I just hope Sun will come over here and ask me to dance." Ruby said with a sigh.

"You never know Ruby, maybe he will. Or, maybe you could ask him." Jay suggested.

"You're right, it's not the stone age, maybe I should. But I think I'll stay here with Pyrrha a bit longer." 

"Ok, you do that. I'll catch you guys later." Jay said, as he made his way over to Blake.

Jay walked up to Blake and asked her if he could join her for a bit. She looked at him and nodded and he moved a bit closer towards her. They both stood in silence for a moment, watching everyone else around them. He looked over towards his current companion and broke the silence,

“So, I noticed how you’ve been looking at Yang all night. Just ask her to dance with you again already.”

“Oh, I couldn’t. She’s busy running the dance and I don’t want to bother her.” Blake said shyly.

“She doesn’t look that busy, this is probably the most free she’s been since the start of the evening. Look, I know we’re not that close, but I want you to be able to enjoy yourself. If dancing with Yang is what will make you happy, then I say take a leap of faith and ask her. You’ll never know if you don’t try.” he replied smirking over towards the girl’s object of affection.

Blake took a moment to consider what Jay had said to her. Yang wanted her to come to the dance to have some fun and if she wanted to spend time with the girl that made her days brighter then goddammit she was going to do it.

“You know what, you’re right. I came here to enjoy myself, I’m gonna go ask her.” she nodded as she started to walk over towards her teammate.

“Hey Jay, thanks again.” she said in a thankful tone.

“Hey it’s no problem. Now get over there and dance with her!” he shouted over towards her. The black haired girl shook her head and chuckled as she headed over towards her potential dance partner.

As Jay watched Blake and Yang dance, he was interrupted by a familiar face tapping him on the shoulder; it was Sun. He placed an arm around the leader of Team JNPR’s shoulders and said in an obnoxious tone,

“Ughhh, women am I right? They’re so complicated.” Sun said, referring to Blake who had left him for Yang as her dance partner..

“Oh yeah… women sure are frustrating.” Jay said sarcastically, thinking how this guy could be so dense. There was a reason she didn’t want to dance with him anymore, he just couldn’t see it. Besides, there was a certain someone who actually wanted to dance with him. Why didn't he just ask her?

Sun continued to ignore Jay’s blatant sarcasm and continued on with his ramblings,

“I don’t know what’s going on with everyone tonight. First Blake ditches me and Neptune’s not being very fun tonight.”

“Neptune? What’s up with him, is he alright?”

“I don’t know man. He told me he was going to ask Weiss out tonight, but he chickened out at the last minute. He could’ve been having fun with her tonight, but instead he’s off in the corner by himself.”

“Yeah...anyways, I’ll catch you later Sun, Pyrrha wanted to talk to me about something.”

“Alright man, catch ya later!” Sun yelled out.

Truth was, Jay didn’t need to talk to Pyrrha, he just wanted to get away from Sun. But more importantly, he wanted to go talk to Neptune and see what was wrong. He had hung out with him on a few occasions and he seemed chill, so he at least felt comfortable talking to him. He headed over to where Neptune stood and caught his attention by saying a quick hello. The blue haired boy nodded a hello back in response.

“Is there something going on tonight Neptune? You don’t really seem like yourself.” Jay asked with a look of concern on his face.

“I don’t know, it’s a lot to explain.” Neptune replied with his eyes facing towards the ground.

“Well dude if you need someone to listen to you, then I’m your guy! Whatever it is you want to talk about, I’m there!” the blonde haired boy offered.

Neptune smiled at his friend’s gesture and accepted his offer; although he wanted to talk to him somewhere a bit more private. Jay suggested the balcony and the two men walked outside. They found a spot on a bench a bit further outside and they sat down next to each other. The blue haired boy looked at his friend and started to explain why he was feeling the way he was,

“I’m assuming Sun already told you about what happened. I saw the two of you talking.”

“Yeah he did, but that was his version. I want to hear yours.”

“Ok well, the reason why I chickened out of asking Weiss to the dance is because I didn’t want to go with her in the first place. I only wanted to ask her because Sun pressured me to. He said since he was going to the dance with Blake, he thought I would be happier going with Weiss so that I wouldn’t be alone. Nothing against Weiss, she’s a great girl, but that’s not what I would’ve wanted to do anyway.”

“So what did you want to do tonight at the dance if you didn’t want to go with Weiss?” Jay pondered.

“Honestly,I would’ve just been happy going with my team and not worry about finding a date. No pressure you know. But Sun wouldn’t stop bothering me about why I haven’t asked anyone out to the dance. In fact, he hasn’t stopped asking me why I haven’t asked out any girls here at Beacon at all since we’ve gotten here. It’s driving me crazy! He doesn’t get it! Does he ever think about what I want?” 

“Well, what do you want Neptune?”

“I just, I don’t want a girlfriend,I want a boyfriend...I’m gay.” Neptune said with a sense of pure emotion and honesty.

“Oh...that’s awesome dude! Am I the only person you’ve told?” Jay said excitedly.

“No,I actually talked about it with Weiss and she was understanding and cool about it.I just haven’t told my team yet. I’m not sure they would understand… especially Sun since he won’t leave me alone when he doesn’t even know what I want.”

Jay looked at his friend, placed his hand on his shoulder and said,

“Dude, I’m no expert on this topic, but you need to put your happiness and comfort before anyone else’s in this situation. If you don’t feel comfortable telling Sun and your other teammates right now, that’s fine. You tell them when you’re ready, on your schedule. I think if they cared about you at all, they would stand by you no matter what; that’s what friends are for. And hey, if you ever need someone to talk to, I’ll be there. Also, I swear that I will not out you to anybody. This is your business man, not mine, so it’s not up to me to share that. I hope I’m making sense dude.”

“You are don’t worry. Thank you Jay...thank you for listening to me.” Neptune said as tears were about to form in his eyes.

Jay, noticing his friend’s tears, reached over and pulled him in for a hug to let him get all his feelings out. Neptune was thankful he could finally be open about who he was and he was happy he had someone here who would listen to him. They stayed like that for a brief moment before both of them pulled away. They agreed that they should head back to the dance, so they got up from where they were sitting and headed over back towards the ballroom.

Once they were back at the dance, Neptune noticed his teammates calling him over to join them. With a newfound confidence, the goggle headed boy gave one last hug to Jay, said goodbye and headed over to join his friends. The blonde haired boy couldn’t help but notice Neptune’s newfound zest for life and that made him smile. He hoped things would go well for him and hopefully his teammates would understand.

As Jay walked further into the ballroom, he noticed Pyrrha and Ruby had moved up to the second floor to continue their discussion. She was probably still giving her friend a pep talk on how to get Sun to dance with her. On a similar note, he noticed Blake and Yang moved off to the side of the room to talk. He looked over to his right and saw Ren and Nora enjoying themselves. He definitely knew he would be going to their wedding in the future. It looked like everyone was having a good time, except Weiss. 

Weiss was off to the side watching everyone else having fun while she fixed different areas of the room, making sure everything was perfect. He knew she just wanted everything to go smoothly since she and Yang worked so hard on it, but she really should let herself relax. He made his way through the crowd and walked over towards the white haired girl. Before he could get her attention, he stopped himself in his tracks… he couldn’t help but notice how pretty she looked tonight. It honestly took his breath away, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind and said,

“Hey Weiss! How come you’re not out there dancing with everybody?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know Mr. Nosey, besides, I’ve been busy.” Weiss said in a teasing manner.

“Well, you and Yang definitely put on a great party. But, what’s the point if you can’t enjoy it right?”

“I hate to admit this, but you’re probably right about that.” she replied.

Jay reached out one of his hands towards Weiss and said,

“How about you and I dance and enjoy all the hard work you and Yang did to make this dance happen?”

“Sure, why not? The night is still young.” Weiss said, taking a hold of his hand as they both headed out towards the dance floor.

Once they got settled onto the dance floor, Jay twirled Weiss around once before bringing her back towards him. She placed her hands around his neck, while he placed his around her waist. The song was slow and they let themselves sway to the music. When they danced together, it’s like they lost track of time. They would occasionally share small talk as they danced, leading to a lot of chuckling between the two of them. In that moment, both of them felt comfortable with each other.

They had been so caught up with their dance, that they didn’t notice the song change to a much more upbeat song. Once they became more aware of the song change, they pulled apart from each other slowly and smiled. Jay was interrupted from his thoughts as he heard Pyrrha, Ren and Nora calling him over to join them in a group dance. He signaled to them he’d be over in a second.

Jay turned back over towards Weiss and said,

“It looks like my team is looking for me, I should head over and dance with them. This was fun Weiss.”

“It was pretty fun.I had no idea you were that smooth on the dance floor Jay.”

“What can I say, dancing is in my blood. My grandpa and my dad were natural dancers and I learned from the best. Anyways, I better get going.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you later Jay. Also, thanks for being such a great dance partner it made my night so... thanks.” 

“No problem Weiss. I’ll see you around.” and with that and one last wave, he headed over towards his teammates to join them in a group dance.

As he danced with his team, he noticed Ruby had finally gotten the courage to ask Sun to dance. Jay's only thought in this moment was... finally.

“That was ELECTRIC! I’ve never felt so alive on the dance floor!” Nora exclaimed as she, Ren, Pyrrha and Jay headed back to their dorm. The dance had finally wrapped up and everybody was headed back to their rooms for the night. It was a good night all around and everybody was satisfied with how the dance turned out. They couldn’t wait for the next one.

As Ren and Nora pulled ahead, Jay noticed Pyrrha taking off her heels that she wore that evening.

“Having a little foot pain Pyrrha?” he asked.

“Yeah, sorry, wearing these all night has felt like a chore. You’d think I’d be used to it since I fight with heels, but I guess not in this situation.” she replied as she rubbed her feet.

Her teammate then got an idea and walked over behind her and lifted her up carrying her bridal style. This took her by surprise, but she appreciated her teammate’s thoughtfulness. 

As Jay carried Pyrrha up the stairs to their dorm, she started to tease him a bit by saying,

“I couldn’t help but notice how cozy you and Weiss were getting on the dance floor. Does somebody have a crush?”

“Relax Pyrrha, it’s just a dance between two friends. It’s nothing to get excited over.” he replied.

“Fine fine...but when you two make it official I want to be the first to know ok?” she said in a teasing manner.

The two of them looked at each other and laughed at their playful banter and eventually they reached their room. He placed her down on the ground, opened the door and the two of them headed inside to finally get some rest after all the excitement they had just experienced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	11. Mission Impossible Part One

It was the Monday after the dance and everyone dreaded the prospect of heading back to classes. For the first years, today was the day where they had to select their first mission to go on. They wouldn’t be alone however, as they would be supervised by a professional huntsman or huntress. Jay had been looking forward to this day, because of the prospect of shadowing a huntsman. It would be a good opportunity to learn a lot and to help some people along the way. Either way, it was a win-win situation.

Once they were ready for the day, Team JNPR headed down to the auditorium. When they arrived the place was completely packed. Besides their fellow Beacon classmates, there were students who were here for the Vytal Festival from the three other combat academies; Atlas Academy, Haven Academy and Shade Academy. The four teammates made their way through the crowd until they found a comfortable spot to stand. A few minutes later, they were joined by team RWBY. They all said a quick hello before their attention turned to Professor Goodwitch who wanted everyone to give their full attention to what Professor Ozpin had to say.

“I wonder how long this is going to take, I want to get going on picking a mission.” Ruby whispered to Jay.

“Yeah you and me both.” he whispered back.

“Would the two of you be quiet! Professor Ozpin is about to speak.” Weiss whispered in a slightly annoyed tone.

“Ok, we’ll be quiet.” Ruby nodded as Jay also acknowledged Weiss’s request. As she turned her attention to Professor Ozpin’s speech, the white haired girl shook her head at her two friends antics.

Professor Ozpin’s speech went on for a while. He had talked about the war, how we pride ourselves on our sense of individuality, expressionism and unity through diversity, and how it’s a huntsman’s job to uphold the peace in our society. Once he was through with the history lesson/inspirational speech, he explained how the missions will be picked by each team and what their goals were based on the task they picked. Before he let them go to pick their missions, he wished them the best of luck and reminded them of their training.

After the speech was over, all the teams got together and headed off to pick their mission. Jay, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren walked over to one of the various job listing boards and they took a look at what was available.

“What about this one guys...it’s an escort mission in the next city over.” Pyrrha suggested.

“Nah. No offence Pyrrha that sounds super boring.” Nora yawned.

“How about this one...team wanted for security detail at local gala.” Jay brought up.

“Come on Jay, there’s gotta be something more interesting than the jobs we’re looking at.” Nora said in a frustrated tone.

“Alright alright. This one looks interesting...two sheriffs from a local village need some students to help them out.” Jay read off the board.

Ren looked at the board and noticed the name of the village, when he saw it his eyes widened. Nora, immediately noticing the shock in Ren’s eyes, placed her hand on his shoulder in an effort to help calm him. He appreciated his partner’s gesture and started to settle down. The black haired boy turned to his other two teammates and said,

“We have to pick that one. That’s the mission we should do.”

“ Ok, I have no problem with that choice. But is there any particular reason why we should do that one?” Jay asked.

“Well, where we’d have to go for the mission has a lot of significance for Ren and I. That place...was our home.” Nora replied, looking up back at Ren.

Jay and Pyrrha looked at one another and nodded. They both knew this was important to their teammates and if this was the mission they wanted to do, then that’s what they’re going to do.

“Alright guys, it looks like we’re off to Kuroyuri!” Jay exclaimed, as he looked in Ren’s direction. This got the other boy to give Jay an appreciative nod and smile. 

Jay turned his attention back to the touch screen. He selected their desired mission and then entered their team name to confirm their selection. Once everything checked out, they received their mission details, telling them they were scheduled to leave for the village the next day. Afterwards they decided to head outside and see what was going on, since they heard Team CFVY just got back from their mission.

When they got outside, they saw Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, who looked like they were already headed for their mission. It looks like they were going with Dr. Oobleck… that should be interesting. They walked over towards them and Jay got their attention by saying,

“You guys are off to save the world eh?”

“Well, it’s not that big a deal really. We’re just heading outside the kingdom.” Ruby confirmed.

“What a coincidence! We’re headed for outside the kingdom as well!” Nora exclaimed.

“Ren and Nora wanted to shadow a sheriff of a nearby village.” Pyrrha added.

“We leave tomorrow morning.” Ren noted.

“Well, good luck on your mission guys! We’ll have to hang out when we all get back!.” Yang offered.

“For sure! Good luck to you guys as well and be safe out there.” Jay said in return.

Once Team RWBY left for their mission with Dr. Oobleck, Jay, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren decided to pack for their mission ahead of time. They got back to their room and started to pack, making sure they had everything they needed. The packing only took about two hours and once they were finished, Ren and Nora decided to go to a local yoga class. When their teammates left, Jay and Pyrrha decided to go for a run together. So they both got changed and they headed outside.

It was a gorgeous day to be outside. It wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too cold either, the temperature was just right. Jay and Pyrrha decided to run along a trail that’s close by the school. For the most part, they kept in time with one another; matching the each other’s pace. But by the end of their run, Jay had an idea. As they ran, Jay turned to his teammate and said,

“Hey Pyrrha! Last one to reach the top of that hill over there has to buy the winner an ice cream.”

“You’re on Jay. Don’t think I’ll go easy on you.” Pyrrha teased.

The two of them start to speed up, trying to get ahead of each other. Jay thought he had the edge over Pyrrha and he started to get cocky. He had used more energy when he sped up and he started to slow down, which let Pyrrha get ahead of him. He tried to catch up with her but it was too late, Pyrrha had won. He joined his teammate up on the hill while also trying to catch his breath.

“I told you Jay, I wasn’t going to go easy on you.” Pyrrha said with a smirk on her face.

“Yeah… I guess I got a little too ahead of myself. You win partner.” Jay wheezed out.

The two of them took a seat on the grassy knoll, taking in the view of the surrounding area. The two of them sat in silence for a bit, until Jay spoke up and said,  
“I hope we do well on this mission tomorrow. I know how important this is to Nora and Ren and I just don’t want to screw it up.”

“I think we’ll be just fine. We’ve been gelling really well as a team lately and our combat skills have improved immensely. There is going to be a learning curve naturally and mistakes will be made; but I think we’ll be ok.” Pyrrha responded.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t be so worried, but I can’t help but be nervous. I guess I’m over thinking it a bit.”

“It’s ok to be nervous, but let’s not dwell on it too much.”

“You always know just what to say Pyrrha.”  
“It may seem that way, but I don’t always you know. Sometimes I worry about saying the wrong things, it’s always been that way since I was a kid. That’s why I always feel the need to apologize, even when I know I have nothing to apologize for.”

“Well… you don’t have anything to be sorry for right now. What you’ve said has been great, I truly mean that. You’ve been nothing but helpful to me ever since we met and you’ve been awesome to so many people. You don’t have to be worried about that around me or anyone else for that matter. If anyone says otherwise, I’ll have a chat with them.”

“Thanks Jay. Hey, don’t you owe me an ice cream? Why don’t we get off this hill so you can buy me my victory dessert.”

“Sounds good to me.” Jay said and the two of them headed back towards campus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	12. Mission Impossible Part Two

Night had fallen and everyone from Team JNPR had gone to bed. Ren quietly slept, Nora loudly snored, Pyrrha let out a light snore and Jay was completely sprawled out on his bed snoring away. As he slept, his scroll started to ring. He tried to ignore it for as long as he could, but eventually he couldn’t disregard it anymore. He turned over in bed and grabbed his scroll, seeing that it was Ruby calling him.

He answered his scroll and as he said hello in a tired voice, all he could hear was static on the other end. He tried to get Ruby’s attention again, but she still wouldn’t answer. Eventually, the call was abruptly cut short and Jay started to worry. This whole situation made him feel off… something wasn’t right. It wasn’t like Ruby to just call, say nothing and then suddenly hang up. He looked over at his alarm clock, seeing it was twelve in the morning. He sighed to himself, he knew he wasn’t going to be getting any sleep tonight. 

The next morning, Team JNPR gathered all of their belongings that they had packed the night before and headed out the door. As they walked towards the ship that would take them to their mission, Pyrrha looked over and noticed Jay seemed out of it. She decided to ask him about it.

“Hey Jay, you seem out of it. What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I got the weirdest phone call from Ruby last night. When I answered the phone, all I could hear was static. Not long after that, she got disconnected.” Jay explained.

“I’m sure they’re fine Jay.” Pyrrha said, trying to reassure her teammate.

“It was probably a butt dial!” Nora speculated.

“Team RWBY has always performed exceptionally in the field. We should be focusing on our own mission.” Ren added.

He knew his teammates were just trying to help, but deep down, Jay knew something wasn’t right. 

“Guys, I know you’re just trying to help, but I can’t shake the feeling that’s telling me something is wrong and that Ruby and her team need help.” he said as he looked at his teammates.

Before any of them could say anything, the sound of blaring sirens could be heard from the city. When they looked over towards the city of Vale, they could also see smoke rising into the sky. Jay knew his suspicion was starting to become all the more real and he wasn’t sure what to do. On one hand, they could go on the mission they were supposed to go on. Or, they could take a risk and go into the city of Vale and see if Ruby was there in need of help.

After thinking about the dilemma at hand, Jay decided to take the risk. He knew something wasn’t right and he wanted his team to be there to help. He turned towards Pyrrha, Nora and Ren and said,

“Guys, change of plans. I could be totally wrong, but I feel like Ruby and her team are in the city and they could be in trouble. I’m asking if you guys are willing to take a leap of faith with me to go and help. Are you in or are you out?” 

“I’m with you.” Pyrrha said with a smile.

“Me too!” Nora exclaimed.

“We’re with you all the way.” Ren added.

“Thanks guys. Let’s head out.” Jay said, as they boarded the ship.

Before Ren got on board the ship, Jay pulled him aside and said,

“Don’t worry Ren. We’ll make it out to that village another time.” Ren looked at his blonde haired friend and nodded in response. 

Once they all made it onto the ship, they started to make their way towards the city. Jay was lost in his own thoughts the entire time. From what they saw before they got on, the four of them knew it had to be pretty serious. He just hoped they would be able to make it there in time to help. Once they got closer, they could see several grimm swarming the city. Down below, they could see Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang trying to fight them off.

They knew now was the time to get down there and give their friends the necessary support. The pilot opened the side door and using Magnild to propel herself, Nora launched herself in the air. Meanwhile, Jay, Pyrrha and Ren all jumped out of the plane and landed safely on the ground. They had noticed Nora had landed right on the head of a King Taijitu, knocking it out. 

Once Nora got herself over to where her teammates were, Pyrrha suggested they all split off to take on some grimm. Jay nodded in approval at his partner’s suggestion and once he said go, the four of them split off by themselves. Jay ran off towards the right and he ran into a group of three Ursa. They snapped and snarled at him, but Jay wasn’t worried in the slightest. 

“Alright, it’s time for Goldilocks to take out the three bears!” he exclaimed as he clapped his hands together to activate the flame dust in his gauntlets.

As soon as the dust ignited in his palms, he started to shoot fireballs towards the three Ursa. When he noticed one of the grimm going blind from his flames, Jay climbed   
aboard the creature’s shoulders and directed him towards one of the other Ursa. As soon as he got close enough, he clapped his hands together and propelled himself off the Ursa he was riding using his flames. While he was in the air, he aimed himself towards the second creature and he took them out with one big flaming punch.

Jay picked himself up off the ground and heard the last Ursa behind him roar. He turned around towards the creature and smirked. He clapped his hands together again, but instead of shooting more fireballs at the beast, he had a better idea. He brings his hands up to his mouth and in one big breath, he breathed out an attack that doused the grimm in flames; killing it instantly. 

As he caught his breath, Jay could see all the people who came to join the battle. There were some droids sent by the Atlesian military, Neptune and Sun had showed up, Mercury and Emerald came and up in the sky he could see Team CFVY had arrived to help them in their effort to take down the grimm. Pretty soon, Team CFVY had made quick work of the rest of the grimm and now the battle was over.

After the battle, notorious criminal Roman Torchwick was arrested by the Atlesian military and taken away. Everyone had gathered together after the fight and congratulated each other on a job well done.

“Thanks again for coming guys! We couldn’t have done this without all your help.” Ruby exclaimed.

“It’s our pleasure Ruby. I had a feeling something was up with you guys. I’m just glad we were able to get here in time to help.” Jay added.

“Hey, I got an idea! Why don’t we throw a party here in Vale to celebrate us taking out the bad guys!” Sun announced.

“Merc and I would love to, but unfortunately we have to get going. See you guys later.” Emerald said, as she and her teammate started to make their way back to campus.

“Ok, see you around!” Ruby yelled.

Once everybody else agreed to the plan, they headed to a small restaurant in the city. They ate, drank and enjoyed each other’s company. Later on in the evening, Neptune pulled Jay aside to talk to him. They found a spot away from the rest of the squad and Neptune started to talk,

“So, I finally came out to my teammates.”

“Aw dude that’s awesome! Are they supportive?” Jay asked.

“Yeah they all are. Sun was a bit confused about it at first, but he’s trying to understand me. He’s made a few mistakes and I had to talk to him about it. But overall, he’s trying and that’s all that matters.” Neptune replied.

“Well, I’m glad your teammates are accepting. Remember, if you ever need another person to listen to you I’m here for you.”

“Thanks Jay. We should probably head back inside.” Neptune suggested.

As they walked inside the restaurant they were shocked to see the karaoke machine had been brought out. Up on stage was Yang singing, Dancing Queen. Neptune gave Jay a pat on the back and headed over towards Sun. Jay walked over towards Ruby and said,

“ I didn’t know your sister could sing.”

“She likes to think she can. Anyways, thanks to you and your team for helping us today.” Ruby commented.

“Hey it’s no problem.” 

“You know, I think we’re doing just fine as first time leaders.” Ruby said, as she looked up at her friend.

“I think we’re doing ok too Ruby. I don’t know what else we’re going to be facing in the future and we may not have all the answers we want; but I think we’ll be ready.”

“Yeah I have a feeling we’ll be fine too.” Ruby said, as they continued to watch her sister sing up on the stage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	13. Round One

“That fight was, AWESOME!!” Nora exclaimed as she walked with her teammates.

“I have to admit, Team RWBY put on quite a show.” Ren added.

“We’ll have to do just as well as them if we plan on winning our fight this afternoon.” Jay proclaimed.

“Indeed, but I think the four of us would benefit from something to eat first.” Pyrrha suggested, as her teammates nodded their heads in agreement; with Nora’s stomach growling loudly.

As they all walked around the fairgrounds after they watched Team RWBY’s fight, Jay couldn’t help but smile. The Vytal Tournament had just started and he couldn’t wait to compete with his friends. Last night he had gotten a call on his scroll from his grandparents from outside of Vale, telling him that they would be watching him and his teammates from home. Even his sister Melanie was able to call him from Signal Academy to wish him and Team JNPR luck in the tournament. He was lucky to have the family he did and he hoped that he would make them proud. 

Jay looked around at all the different vendors, he hoped they could find some food before their first match. They stopped in haste as they saw Team RWBY, who had already gotten some food at a noodle cart. However, they overheard Weiss wondering why she couldn’t pay for her team’s meal with her card. Pyrrha looked over at her teammates with a smile and urged them to follow her lead.

“Maybe I could help?” Pyrrha offered.

“Pyrrha!” Ruby shouted in excitement.

“Aw, you don’t have to do that Pyrrha.” Yang chimed.

“BUT SHE COULD!” Blake said in desperation.

“Well, I think you all earned it after that battle.” Pyrrha assured them.

“Do you guys mind if we pull up a seat and join you for lunch?” Jay asked.

“Sure. The more the merrier as I always say.” Weiss exclaimed.

“Uh Weiss… you’ve never said that.” Ruby pointed out.

“Anyways, the point is that you’re more than welcome to join us.” Weiss stammered, as Jay, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren grabbed a seat to join them.

Once everyone finished eating their food, they took a moment to relax. On Team RWBY’s side of things, Blake, Ruby and Yang looked satisfied with their meals; while Weiss looked a little sick from eating all that food. As for Team JNPR, Jay looked like he was going to barf, Pyrrha looked content, Nora looked like she could eat two more bowls and Ren had felt a little discomfort from that meal.

“Was it really a good idea to eat before a fight?” Ren questioned.

“Of course! It will give us energy.” Pyrrha responded.

“BURRRRRRRPPPPPPPP” Nora belched loudly.

“I think I ate too much food guys. Uggghhhhh, I think I might get sick.” Jay said in a sickly tone.

“Oh! If you barf, aim it at the enemy!” Nora said excitedly.

“Nora, that’s disgusting. But if you do feel the urge…” Ren said both disgusted and intrigued.

“Sure thing guys.” Jay said as he continued to hold his stomach.

Pyrrha got up from her seat and suggested that she and her team head to the colosseum. Before they could leave however, Ruby asked,

“Do you you guys think you’re ready for the big fight?”

“Of course! We’ve got a world-renowned fighter on our team, what’s basically a ninja, I can bench five of me and Jay has wicked martial arts skills. We’ll be fine!” Nora proclaimed.

“Nora’s right. Besides, it’s nice to actually be in a fight with guidelines.” Pyrrha said in hopes of raising team morale.

“I’m sure you guys will do fine and as Pyrrha said, we’ve faced worse things before. This should be no sweat!” Yang added in support.

As they were talking, they could hear Professor Port and Professor Oobleck on the intercom. They addressed the need for Team JNPR to start heading towards the arena, like they should’ve already been doing a few minutes ago. Team RWBY wished them well and the four of them started to head towards their destination.

Jay had started to feel much better once they got to the arena, the fresh air during their walk must’ve helped. He placed the leather bracelets around his wrists and in one movement the gauntlets wrapped around his hands. Once he was satisfied with the results, he met up with his teammates in the center of the room and they formed a huddle.

“Alright guys, this is it. This is our time to show the world what we do best and what is that guys?” Jay asked.

“KICKING ASS!” Nora answered loudly.

“Exactly Nora! Let’s get out there and win this thing!” Jay said as he placed his hand in the center of the huddle. Once every team member placed a hand in the middle, they lifted them high in the air in excitement.

They headed out to the arena and they could hear their team being introduced to the crowd. They all waved as they got to their starting point in the center of the arena. Across the way, they could see their opponent's; Team BRNZ of Shade Academy in Vacuo. They watched as their battle conditions were being randomly selected. Team BRNZ’s side of the arena, had become a dense forest. On Team JNPR’s side of the arena, a tall mountain came into view. 

As soon as the arena was finished being set up, the countdown started. Three… two… one and just like that the two teams went to war. Pyrrha headed straight for Brawnz and put up a good fight against him. While that was going on, another member of Team BRNZ made their way into one of the trees with their sniper rifle. She started firing at the members of Team JNPR. Ren was able to dodge these attacks with ease thanks to his skills in acrobatics. Jay noticed this and signaled to Ren to keep the sniper distracted, with Ren nodding back in agreement. As Jay was fighting off Roy Stallion, he saw Nora activating her semblance against Nolan Porfirio. She was able to push him back hard against some rocks. 

Jay saw the thunder coming from on top of the mountain and yelled,

“Nora! Head to the top of the mountain!”

She gave Jay a thumbs up and made her way up the mountain. Jay moved over towards Pyrrha and they tagged teamed against Brawnz and Roy. The two of them made a formidable team against the two of them, matching their opponent’s strike for strike.

“Go Jay! You can beat those clowns!” Ruby yelled from the stands.

“He’s definitely improved.” Weiss noted.

“Yeah but he’s got nothing on Pyrrha.” Yang added.

Jay noticed the sniper, May Zedong, aiming for Nora on top of the mountain. He wanted to prevent that from happening. He quickly made a decision and yelled for Pyrrha to come over towards him. Once she got close enough, he lifted her high into the air so that she could block the shot coming towards Nora with her shield. Pyrrha was successful and Nora was able to fully charge herself with electricity. She fired a shot from her grenade launcher towards the forest, knocking May from her spot with an explosive boom.

Jay ran and jumped into the air. As he was in the air, he clapped his hands together to activate his flame dust. When he landed on the ground, he pounded his fiery fists to the ground, causing it to shake the arena floor; which knocked the other three members of Team BRNZ to the ground.

Now was the perfect time to finish them off and Jay thought the best way to do that was with team attacks. He looked over towards Ren and Nora and shouted to them,

“Guys! Finish May and Nolan off with Flower Power!” 

“You got it El Capitan!” Nora replied.

Nora slammed her hammer onto the ground, propelling Ren through the air. Once she knew he was headed over there safely, she utilized the recoil of her hammer to sail over towards her partner. Once the two met up closer to their opponents, they attacked them at the same time. Ren utilized his blades, while Nora used the power from her mighty hammer. This knocked out Nolan and May instantly.

Meanwhile, Jay and Pyrrha still had to deal with Brawnz and Roy. They looked at each other and the two of them said their team name in unison. Jay clapped his hands together and started aiming fireballs at Pyrrha’s shield in rapid fire. The shield was able to reflect the fireballs towards their opponents in quick succession, leaving them no room to get up from the ground. To finish them off, Jay aimed one last fireball at his teammate’s shield. The fireball travelled at fast speed towards Pyrrha’s shield and once it made contact, it reflected right into the last of Team BRNZ.

“Ladies and gentleman, Team JNPR of Beacon win by knockout!” Professor Port shared with the audience.

“They will be moving on to the doubles round!” Professor Oobleck added.

Once they finished their match, the four members of Team JNPR thanked their opponents for a great fight and shared some handshakes. After they were finished, they all huddled together in a celebratory hug. They did it. They made it past the first round and Jay couldn’t wait to see how the rest of the tournament would play out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	14. A Little Talk and Training

After their big win in the first round of the tournament, Team JNPR were all pooped. Once they got out of the arena, they decided to head to bed early so that they would be well rested. They arrived upstairs to their room and as soon as they closed the door, Nora was already in bed. Ren, Pyrrha and Jay each took a seat on their respective beds, because there was still something important the team needed to talk about.

Jay got his teammates attention and started to speak,

“That was an excellent team effort out there guys. If we keep it up, we could have a shot at winning this thing for Vale.”

“True, but it’s not over yet. We still need to decide who we’re sending to the doubles round. Any ideas on who we should send guys?” Pyrrha added.

“Well, I would personally suggest you and Jay. You both have excellent chemistry on the battlefield and you’re both great fighters.” Ren suggested.

“I’m open to that if you are Pyrrha.” Jay said.

“I’m game Jay. We just need to get Nora’s feedback before we make any final decisions. Hey Nora, do you have any idea on who should go to the doubles round? Nora… Nora? She’s out cold.” Pyrrha said, noticing her teammate’s heavy sleeping.

Ren walked over towards Nora and knelt down beside her. He leaned in until he was close enough to her ear and whispered out the word, “Pancakes.” At the sound of her favourite word, Nora jolted awake. When she realized there were no pancakes, she gave a cold glare towards Ren. 

“What was so important for you to wake me up, that you lied about pancakes. You never lie about something that sacred!” Nora said, with a twinge of anger in her voice.

“Well Nora, we wanted to know who you think we should send to the doubles round. Ren suggested Pyrrha and I. Would you be ok with that or do you think we should pick a different combo?” Jay asked her.

“I’m ok with you and Pyrrha going to the doubles round. Can I go back to bed now?” 

“Yeah Nora you can.” Jay said with a chuckle.

“Okie doke. Also Ren, because you lied about there being pancakes, there better be a fresh stack of them tomorrow made for the whole team.” Nora said as she instantly fell back asleep.

“It’s only fair, I did lie.” Ren said to his other two teammates as he headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

Later on that night, Team JNPR were all completely passed out. Nora was snoring extremely loud, Ren was lightly snoring and Pyrrha laid on her side totally at peace. The only member not able to fall asleep right away was Jay. He was worried about how he and Pyrrha were going to do in the doubles round. He knew they were a good team, but he couldn’t help but worry about who they could be fighting against.

He sat up in his bed and looked out the window. He took a deep breath, as he was caught in his own thoughts. This caught the attention of Pyrrha, who was a light sleeper and had heard her partner sigh. She looked up at him as she laid in bed and asked him,

“Are you alright Jay? You should be asleep.”

“I know I should be, but I can’t help but worry about the doubles round. What if we get picked to fight tomorrow and we go up against a team that’s way better than us. I know we’re both strong and we work well together, I just don’t know if it’s going to be enough. I’m sorry if I’m rambling, I’ve just never been in an official tournament.” Jay confessed.

“It’s ok to be nervous, especially if it’s your first tournament. You know, I’m always nervous before an event of any kind; official or not. But what helps me during those times is to just take a deep breath and try to let those stresses go. The only thing in front of me is the task at hand and that’s what I try to focus on while in that moment. Does that help Jay? If not, I’m sorry it it wasn’t.” Pyrrha said to her partner in earnest.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, that’s actually really helpful. Thanks Pyrrha.” Jay responded with a small smile.

“You’re welcome, but how about we both try to get some sleep.” Pyrrha said as she turned back over to her other side to sleep on.

“Ok, night Pyrrha.” Jay said as he laid back on his bed and started to drift back into sleep.

It was the next day and it was determined Jay and Pyrrha would not be fighting. They would however be fighting the next day. The two of them had been working out together for most of the day to prepare. They went for a five kilometer run, then they worked on their strength training and they also did some light sparring. They felt like they got a lot accomplished and they couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

Although Pyrrha had already went upstairs to go spend some time with Ren and Nora, Jay still wanted to spend some more time at the gym. He wrapped his hands in some hand wrap and he got to work on the punching bag. He would punch and dodge, repeating the same tactic over and over again until he got faster with it. Then he moved into some more heavier punches and kicks, making sure he worked every part of his body.

As he was working out, he didn’t notice Weiss behind him. She had just gotten back from seeing her sister off and she had noticed Jay in the gym by himself. She watched him punch that heavy bag over and over, his concentration never wavering. She couldn’t help but admire his work ethic and it made her smile a small smile. She figured now was the perfect chance to catch him off guard. She took a step forward and said,

“You never let up on that poor punching bag do you Jay?”

When Jay heard Weiss’s voice, he got startled. He turned to look at her as his heart was still pounding from the light scare.

“Very funny Weiss. I’m just getting a quick workout in before tomorrow.” Jay said.

“Fair enough. Come to think of it, I always hear from other people that you come down here by yourself a lot when it’s late. Why’s that? Why do you come down here alone at night?” Weiss asked him.

“Well, it’s less busy for starters. I’m not too big on working out in a huge crowd. Too many sweating bodies you know? But I guess the other reason is because it gives me time to think about stuff. No distractions blocking out my thoughts. Besides, I’m not always alone you know. Pyrrha sometimes works out with me. Does that answer your question?” Jay said with a small smile.

“It does, thanks.” Weiss said.

“Hey Weiss, do you feel like strapping on the gloves?” He said as he got closer to her.

“Are you for real? I’m not fighting you in such a barbaric way. Besides, you know in the right conditions, I would win.” Weiss teased.

“Then I hope and pray Pyrrha and I don’t have to face you and Yang tomorrow. We’d be done for sure.” Jay said with a chuckle.

The two of them looked at one another, not sure what to do next. It was like they were lost in their own little world. Weiss shook herself out of the trance and offered,

“I don’t know what you’re plans are for the next hour or two, but would you like to go grab a drink with me, Ruby and Sun? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I mean if you still wanted to work out I cou-...”

“Weiss it’s alright. I’d love to grab a drink with you guys. Besides, I’m done working out for the night. It’d be nice to grab something with friends.”

“Perfect, we better get going.” Weiss smiled.

Once Jay took his hand wraps off and cleaned himself up a bit, he caught up with Weiss. The two walked side by side as they headed towards their destination, with both of them having a smile on their face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	15. Round Two

It was the second day of the doubles round of the tournament and Jay and Pyrrha learned they would be a part of the first fight of the day. Their opponents would be Sun and Neptune, who they had only known for a little while now. Neptune and Jay had gotten to know each other pretty well and he could say they were friends. As for Sun… Jay wasn’t too sure of him to be perfectly honest. He’s only hung out with him once before and it was last night. But regardless of his friendships with these two, Jay knew him and Pyrrha would not be holding back against them.

Before they headed out to the stadium, Jay and Pyrrha gave each other reassuring pats on the back. They wanted to go out there and do their very best. The two started to walk out to the battle arena as they were introduced to the audience.

“Our first team, representing Beacon Academy and the Kingdom of Vale, are Jay Arc and Pyrrha Nikos from Team JNPR!” Professor Oobleck announced. 

Jay and Pyrrha waved to the crowd and they could see Nora and Ren, sitting in the front row of the stands with Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. They took the extra time to wave to their teammates and friends.

“Our second team, representing Haven Academy and the Kingdom of Mistral, are Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias from Team SSSN!” Professor Port said as Sun and Neptune walked out to the battlefield. 

Sun and Neptune took the time to wave to the crowd until they reached the center of the arena. They stood in front of Pyrrha and Jay, the two teams looked ready for a fight. Sun smirked and said to his opponents,

“Don’t worry guys, when Neptune and I win we won’t gloat too much about it. You know, to spare your feelings and junk.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that Sun. The day you and Neptune beat Pyrrha and I, that will be the day pigs fly.” Jay responded with a smirk of his own.

The teams watched as their arena was randomized. On Sun and Neptune’s side of the arena, it transformed into a piece of desert land. For Jay and Pyrrha’s side, it had become the lava field. Both teams took to their starting positions as Professor Port and Professor Oobleck did their countdown. Once the countdown finished and Professor Port gave them the go ahead, the battle had commenced.

Neptune and Sun decided to split off, so Jay and Pyrrha decided to play along with that strategy. Pyrrha had decided to go after Neptune, while Jay was going to take on Sun. Neptune found a high place and started blasting rounds at Pyrrha, while she blocked them with her shield. Pyrrha wanted to take her opponent out in a quick and efficient way, so she thought about how she could do it. When she thought of her idea, she decided she needed to get closer to Neptune.

When she got close enough, she was able to strike Neptune with her spear. This knocked him back quite a bit. He started to get more frustrated, so he decided to fight Pyrrha in close quarters. He switched over to his trident and ran over towards Pyrrha to get in a hit against her, but she was able to block his strike with her shield. Neptune had left himself open, so she was able to get in another strike, this time right in the side.

Every time he would try to hit her back, she would be able to block and strike him in return. Neptune had heard about how skilled Pyrrha was back in Mistral, but now he was getting to know that first hand. He had started to feel weak and he didn’t know how much longer he could keep up with her. She noticed how tired her opponent was getting, so she decided now was the time to finish him off.

Pyrrha lifted her spear high and once she knew her aim was right, she threw it right into Neptune as hard she could. This caused Neptune to go flying into the air, with him landing right outside the arena. 

“And Neptune is out by going outside the ring!” Professor Oobleck commented.

“Yes, that was some incredible technique from Pyrrha Nikos. But let’s see how her partner Jay is doing against Mr. Wukong!” Professor Port added, as the two men shifted their focus towards the fight between the two boys.

For the past little while, Jay and Sun had been duking it out and Jay had thought that he had the upper hand. Sun noticed his teammate was knocked out, so he couldn’t ask him to help him. So, he decided to take this fight to a whole other level. He stood there and clapped his hands together to activate his light clones. As he focused on his light clones, they went over to try and attack Jay. 

Jay punched both clones to try and get them away from him, but they wouldn’t let up. He tried to figure out how to get the clones to stop attacking him. He decided to try something out to see if his suspicions were correct. He clapped his hands together and shot a fireball towards Sun. This broke Sun out of his thoughts, making his clones disappear. This confirmed what Jay had thought, that Sun’s clones will only appear if he’s able to focus on them and only if he stands still. His solution was simple, keep Sun moving so he can’t focus.

Jay started firing more fireballs towards Sun to keep him moving. The other boy was so focused on dodging Jay’s attacks, that he couldn’t focus on anything else. Because he used his light clones for a significant amount of time, Sun’s aura had depleted quite a bit and he was starting to feel the effects. Jay figured he had Sun right where he wanted him, so he decided to finish him off.

Jay ran right up to his very tired opponent and gave one final uppercut to his jaw. Sun fell to the ground and laid completely flat… he was finished.

“Sun Wukong is eliminated by technical knockout! The winners of the match are Jay Arc and Pyrrha Nikos of Vale!” Professor Port announced.

Jay helped Sun up from the ground and he thanked him for a great fight. Sun wasn’t too happy he lost, but he shook Jay’s hand in return anyway. Neptune had found his way back up to the arena and when he got there he walked straight towards Sun and Jay. He shook Jay’s hand and congratulated him and Pyrrha on the win, with Jay shaking his hand in return; complimenting them on a good performance as well.

As Neptune helped Sun off the arena, Jay heard Pyrrha call his name and he ran over towards her. He lifted her up for a hug and swung her around once before placing her back on the ground. 

“We did it Jay! We won!” Pyrrha exclaimed.

“Yeah we sure did. We kicked their asses big time!” Jay shouted in response, as they continued to hug.

Once they finished their hug, they noticed Ren and Nora coming to join them in the arena. Once they arrived, the four of them got in one big group hug. They decided in that moment that Pyrrha was going to represent them in the singles round, since they all felt she represented what their team was all about the best. She felt so honored her teammates supported her in such a way, she actually started to tear up a little.

After their fight, Jay and Pyrrha joined Ren, Nora and Team RWBY to watch some more fights. Eventually, it was Yang and Weiss’s turn to fight. Jay and his team wished them both luck as they headed down to the arena. Yang and Weiss had to fight two students from Atlas Academy, which Jay heard their names were Neon and Flynt. The fight was incredible, both teams gave it their all. Jay got worried when he saw Weiss go into the geyser with Flynt. He was shocked however to see Flynt still standing.

But when Yang went into beast mode, nothing could stop her. Through her own sheer strength and tenacity, she was able to finish off both Flynt and Neon; winning the match for her and Weiss. It was apparent that Weiss had sustained some minor injuries, so her teammates took her to the infirmary. Jay decided to go visit her and he asked his teammates if they wanted to join him. Ren and Nora however, had already left for the fairgrounds, which only left Pyrrha to ask. She declined because Professor Ozpin had asked to see her, but she told Jay to tell Weiss to get better soon.

Jay arrived to the infirmary, where he was stopped by Ruby.

“Jay! Please state your business on why you’re here!” Ruby said in an authoritative tone.

“Ruby relax, I’m here to see Weiss. You know, to make sure she’s ok.” Jay replied.

“Ruby, when Blake and Yang asked you to watch me I don’t think they meant to harass visitors.” Weiss shouted from her bed.

“I’m sorry Weiss. I just take my job of protecting you seriously. Anyways, your boy toy is here to see you.” Ruby said as she moved so Jay could enter the room.

“Ruby! He isn’t my boy toy, he’s just a friend!” Weiss said defensively.

“Yeah right Weiss and water is wet. What’s your point?” Ruby questioned.

“Ugh, Ruby.” Weiss uttered.

“I’m kidding I’m kidding. I’ll just leave you two alone to talk.” Ruby nodded as she left to go find a drink from the pop machine.

Jay walked over towards Weiss and sat on the foot of her bed. Jay looked at her with a grin and said,

“Weiss, that move you pulled was incredibly bold. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Well, I had to get Flynt away from Yang somehow. I couldn’t let her get hit.” Weiss said.

“Fair enough, but still, that move took guts and I respect that.” Jay said in an encouraging tone.

Jay reached in his pocket and handed Weiss a small object. She looked at him and asked,

“Jay, what is this?”

“Well, I made this bracelet from one of my old leather jackets and I thought you might like it. I’m sorry if it’s not something you would traditionally wear. I just thought this would help you feel better.” Jay explained.

“Don’t be sorry, I actually think it’s very nice… thanks. Do you mind helping me put it on?” Weiss asked.

Jay moved over closer to her and tied the bracelet around her left wrist, which fit perfectly. Jay was about to get up to leave, but Weiss had grabbed his arm before he could. He looked at her surprised as she started to utter,

“Jay… I was actually wondering if you could stay for a little while longer. Do you mind?”

“No I don’t mind. You could probably use the company.” Jay said as he sat back down at the foot of the bed.

The two of them spent a good few hours talking about anything and everything. It was like they were in their own little world and by the time Jay had to go, they didn’t want their talk to end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	16. Talks and Decisions

Pyrrha came out of her meeting with Ozpin feeling very unsure. On one hand, taking over Amber’s maiden powers seemed like a natural choice. Taking on this type of responsibility meant she could help humanity and she wanted to be able to help other people. On the other hand, what did this mean for her? Ozpin made it clear to her that the transfer may not even work and even worse, she may not be the same person. Is this what she really wanted? She wasn’t so sure.

She got back to her room and when she opened the door, she saw Jay laying on his bed reading a book and Nora and Ren playing a card game on her bed. She smiled a small sad smile and closed the door behind her. This got her teammates attention and Jay welcomed her back and said,

“Hey Pyrrha! How did your meeting go?”

“Oh… it was fine.” Pyrrha said nervously.

“Are you sure? It doesn’t sound like it went ok.”

“I assure you, everything’s fine Jay. I’m just tired that’s all.” 

“Ok, well you better get some rest. The singles round starts tomorrow and we all want you to be well rested.”

“Yeah you’re right. I just need to use the washroom before I go to sleep.” Pyrrha said as she went to go prepare for bed.

Jay looked at Nora and Ren and they all looked concerned for Pyrrha. Jay knew that Pyrrha didn’t want to talk about whatever was bothering her right now, but he knew he needed to talk to her at some point. He couldn’t let whatever was bothering his teammate consume her, it wasn’t healthy. She was always there for him, Ren and Nora, so he wanted to be there for her.

In the next two days, things weren’t getting any better. Yesterday, it looked as though Yang attacked Mercury unprovoked. Jay and his team were completely shocked, they didn’t know what to make of this whole thing. They all knew Yang would never do something like this, so none of this made any sense.

The four of them sat in a circle around their room in thought, taking in what they had just seen. Jay looked at his teammates and took a deep breath. Once he had his thoughts together he started to speak,

“Guys, I know we’re all really confused about what we saw yesterday. But I think regardless, we should try to support Yang during this time.”

“Agreed Jay.” Pyrrha echoed.

Ren and Nora also supported their leader’s decision by giving a quiet nod. They could hear Team RWBY’s door opening and Jay decided to go see who was outside. He got up from the ground and opened the door, in front of him were Ruby, Weiss and Blake. The three of them looked deeply concerned for their teammate, so Jay decided to see if there was any way he could help. 

“Hey, how’s Yang doing? Is she ok?” Jay asked.

“She’s hanging in there, she's just still rattled from today.” Blake uttered.

“Someone told me that Mercury was taken back to Haven. We won't know what happened until he lands.” Ruby offered.

“If there’s anything we can do, please don’t hesitate to ask.” Ren said while standing behind Jay.

“Thanks guys. Pyrrha..., be sure to win one for Beacon ok?” Ruby said.

“Maybe it will cheer Yang up.” Weiss added.

“I’ll do my best.” Pyrrha said, as she forced a smile onto her face.

After their friends left, Pyrrha looked noticeably sadder, that is until Nora got up in her face; in which case her eyes went wide with surprise.

“You heard Ruby! NO. MORE. MOPING. AROUND! We have to get you in shape for the big fight. It could be any day now. Which is why you need to be ready for the most important fight of your entire life!” Nora commanded.

“Nora’s right. You can’t let your concern for Yang hold you back. You’ll be representing all of Beacon Academy, so you need to focus.” Ren added.

“Of course. I-” Pyrrha said, before she was interrupted by Ren offering her a blended smoothie.

This started discourse between Ren and Nora, he thought there was nothing wrong with the beverage while Nora thought it looked like it came from the bottom of the sea. Jay ignored his fighting friends and looked over at Pyrrha. He knew she was still bothered by something and he wanted to know why. But, he decided not to press her and instead suggested a team outing. He put both arms around Ren and Nora and he suggested that they all take a walk.

After walking around with her teammates for a few hours, Pyrrha had slipped away from them to go sit by the side of a building. She hung her head low, deep in thought about her dilemma. She was taken out of her thoughts when she heard a familiar voice say,

“Hey, I know this isn’t really that healthy, but I thought this might cheer you up.”

“Um… right. Thanks Jay.” Pyrrha said as she took the cotton candy from her partner.

Jay looked over and saw Ren and Nora walking by, but noticed they decided to go the other way to give him and Pyrrha some privacy. Jay plopped himself onto the ground next to Pyrrha and he started to speak,

“Pyrrha, I know we haven’t known each other for that long… but I feel like I’ve known you all my life. Because of this, I feel like we can tell if the other’s bothered by something and I’ve noticed that you haven’t been yourself lately. Whatever it is, I want to try and be there and support you as much as possible. So what I’m trying to say is, what can I do to help?” 

Pyrrha looked over at her teammate in awe and she felt her teammate’s hand go over top of hers. She smiled at the gesture, then leaned over towards him and placed her head on his shoulder.

“You’re already doing it Jay.” Pyrrha said as she started to relax in Jay’s company.

They both sat like this for a while, listening in to the wind as it swept through the trees. All of a sudden, Pyrrha opened her eyes and moved away from Jay and said,

“Jay, I'm so confused?”

“What do you mean Pyrrha?” Jay wondered.

“Do you believe in destiny?” 

“Is this like the time when we first met and you asked me what aura meant to me?”

“No, not really. I’m just curious about what you think about destiny?”

“Uhhh, I guess it’s really up to each person to decide what it means to them.” 

“When I think of destiny, I don’t think of a predetermined fate you can’t escape. But rather, some sort of final goal. Something you work towards your entire life.” Pyrrha uttered.

“Yeah, that makes sense to me.” Jay said, trying to understand Pyrrha as much as he could.

“Well, what would you do if something came along that you never expected. Something that had the potential to stand between you and your destiny.”

“I don’t know-”

“OR what if you could suddenly fulfill your destiny in an instant, but at the cost of who you are in the process? Wouldn’t that scare you?” Pyrrha said as her speech started to become faster.

“Pyrrha… what’s going on? Nothing you’re saying is making any sense.”

“None of it makes sense! This wasn’t how things were supposed to happen!” she said, as she got up away from Jay.

“Pyrrha I’m sorry! I’m trying to understand what’s wrong. Please… help me try to understand.”

“I’ve always felt as though I was destined to become a Huntress. To protect the world. And it’s become increasingly clear to me that my feelings were right. But, I’m not sure if I can do it.”

“Of course you can. This is something you’ve always wanted to do and you have the skills to back that up. Don’t hold yourself back from what you want. That’s the type of person I’ve always known you to be, the type of person to never back down.” Jay said honestly.

When she heard his words to her, Pyrrha started to cry. Jay was just as confused as before, but he didn’t want to give up.

“Pyrrha?” he said, taking a step towards her.

“Stop.” she said quietly.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Just… STOP!” Pyrrha yelled, as her semblance activated, causing Jay to be thrown right into the wall.

Jay let out a small scream in pain, as he fell to the ground. Pyrrha looked at Jay in horror, regretting what she had done. She never meant to lash out at him like that, he was just trying to help. She saw him, writhing in pain on the ground and she started to tear up again.

“I’m… sorry Jay!” Pyrrha cried out as she ran away from him.

“Pyrrha wait! Please come back! I want to help!” Jay called out to her, but it was too late. She had already ran off.

As he continued to lay on the ground, Jay slammed his fist down in frustration. Why wouldn’t she let him help her? Why was she pushing him away? He just wanted to know why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	17. The Fall of Beacon Part One

Jay couldn’t find Pyrrha after she ran off after their conversation, he just hoped she was alright. He headed to the arena with Ren and Nora to find seats. The three of them hoped Pyrrha would show up for her match if she was selected. As the remaining singles round competitors came out to the center, Team JNPR prayed Pyrrha was there. Sure enough their prayers were answered, Pyrrha had shown up. They all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The randomizer started and everybody waited in anticipation for who would be competing in the next fight. The first combatant picked was Penny Polendina, Ruby’s friend from Atlas Academy. The second combatant was none other than Pyrrha. The other competitors left the stage so that Penny and Pyrrha could get ready for their match. Jay could tell Pyrrha looked nervous, he just hoped it wouldn’t hinder her performance.

When the match began, it was like Pyrrha and Penny were in a world of their own. Penny would strike with her blades, while Pyrrha would block with her spear and shield. They were locked in intense combat and neither one of them planned on letting up. Jay watched intensely as the two women fought, while his teammates cheered Pyrrha on. At one point, it looked like Pyrrha had Penny beat, but she was dead wrong. Penny was able to rise from the ground and land a swift kick to Pyrrha’s face, causing her to fall back.

Penny was able to get Pyrrha’s spear and shield away from her and every time Pyrrha would try to use her semblance to retrieve them, Penny was able to stop her. Penny got ready to make her final attack, but while she was doing that Pyrrha had a weird look on her face. Although Penny only had a few of her blades out, to Pyrrha it looked like hundreds. When Penny sent out her blades for one last strike, Pyrrha decided to strike back, using an extreme amount of force from her semblance. The force of Pyrrha’s polarity sent Penny’s blades back towards her, but what happened next nobody expected. 

When Penny’s blades came flying back, the blades went right through her; tearing her completely apart. Several parts of Penny’s body spread out across the floor. The whole arena went silent for a moment, judging what they had just seen. In their eyes it looked like Pyrrha Nikos had murdered a fellow student. Everybody was completely stunned. Jay sat there in shock next to his teammates, who were just as taken aback as him. They just could not believe what had just happened.

As everyone in the arena sat there in shock, a voice came on over the loudspeaker. The unknown person behind the microphone talked about various things, but the message they were trying to get across the most was, who can you trust? Jay sat there in anger. He knew that whoever was speaking was the one responsible for what’s been happening at the tournament. Once the mystery person finished their speech, alarms started to blare around the arena. Everyone went into panic mode and they started to flee. 

Jay, Ren and Nora looked up at the ceiling of the colosseum and saw a nevermore start to try and make its way into the arena. Jay looked over to where Pyrrha stood, she was in complete shock. He needed her to get out of the way before the nevermore broke in. In desperation, he yelled out,

“PYRRHA! You have to get out of there… NOW! Please Pyrrha! I’m begging you, move! PYRRHA!” 

Jay couldn’t get his teammate to listen to him, so he decided to take drastic measures. He jumped from where he was in the stands, down to the arena. As he ran, he continued to beg for her to get out of there before it was too late. When he was able to catch up with Pyrrha, the nevermore landed in the arena with a hard thud, sending Pyrrha right into Jay. He held her close to protect her from the creature. Before it was able to kill the two of them, somebody had used one of Penny’s blades to get the nevermore out of the way. Their savior was in fact, Ruby.

Although Pyrrha questioned why the dark haired girl would save them, Ruby yelled to the creature to leave Pyrrha and Jay alone. The nevermore charged right towards the three of them, but before it could hit them, a barrage of lockers took down the bird; locking it in place. A bunch of the students came together to retrieve their weapons out of their lockers, ready to face the threat in front of them.

The lockers couldn’t hold the nevermore for long and it eventually sprung free from the ground. The students all came together to work as a team and with an extraordinary effort, they were able to defeat the beast. Once everyone came together, Ruby turned towards Pyrrha, who had started to cry.

“Ruby I… I’m so sorry.” Pyrrha choked out, as the tears slid down her face.

“Me too, but it wasn’t your fault Pyrrha. Whoever was behind the microphone, they’re the ones that are responsible for this mess. It’s our job to make sure that no one else gets hurt.” Ruby said, in a determined tone.

Jay got up from beside Pyrrha and handed her her weapons. He looked at Pyrrha and said,

“She’s right you know. Are you in or are you out?”

Pyrrha looked Jay in the eyes and nodded in agreement. Ruby was right, Pyrrha knew what she had to do. She had to join together with her fellow students and prevent anyone else from suffering a terrible fate. She grabbed her spear and shield from Jay, while he used one of his thumbs to wipe away the remaining tears on her face.

Meanwhile, griffons had started to arrive and the group were trying to figure out their next move. Before they could come up with a solid plan, Professor Port and Professor Oobleck arrived and asked them all to evacuate. Ruby tried to convince them to change their minds, but Professor Oobleck reminded them of how dangerous the current situation was. He also wanted his students to live to talk about this event in the future. The students were convinced and they all exited the arena, leaving the two professors to deal with the griffons.

After an encounter with General Ironwood, the students decided to take an airship to Beacon Academy to help with the situation there.Along the way, Ruby had left the group to deal with another threat. Jay just hoped she would be alright, he knew how much Yang, Weiss and Blake would be worried about her. When they made it to their destination, they started taking out grimm that had taken over the school.

Eventually, Jay was able to reunite with Pyrrha, Ren and Nora; he was happy they were all safe. Pyrrha looked over and saw Professor Ozpin making his way out of a nearby building, with him urging her to get over there. She looked at her teammates before joining him.

“Where is she going?” Nora wondered aloud.

“I’m not quite sure. You guys stay here with the others, I’ll follow her and get some answers.” Jay said, as his teammates nodded and joined everyone else.

Jay eventually caught up with Pyrrha and Professor Ozpin as they were making their way towards the elevator. When the doors closed, Jay started asking questions.

“Can you tell me what’s going on here Professor?” he asked.

“I have no time to talk about this right now Mr. Arc. Time is of the essence.” Professor Ozpin said in a much stricter tone.

Jay decided to save his questions for later and waited for the elevator to come to a complete stop. 

Once they arrived to the vault, the three of them ran quickly towards the area at the end of the hallway. As they ran, Jay took in his surroundings, noting how creepy this place was. When they got to the end of the hallway, Jay could not believe what he was looking at. Right in front of him were two pods. One of the pods had a lifeless looking girl in it and the other pod was empty. He was so confused. Before he could ask Pyrrha any questions, Professor Ozpin had already urged her to get into the empty pod. She did as she was asked and got inside.

Professor Ozpin suggested that if Jay wanted to help, then he should be watching the door. Jay nodded and turned towards where he had to guard. He headed down a little further so he was right in the middle of the room, getting into attack position when he got there. He couldn’t stop thinking about why Professor Ozpin needed Pyrrha here in the first place. The whole thing didn’t sit right with him.

He was taken out of his thoughts when he heard someone enter the vault. He noticed Professor Ozpin was still focused on getting Pyrrha’s pod ready, so he decided to take on the threat. A raven haired woman in a red dress entered the room, staring him down.

“So Ozpin is getting children to guard his vault? How embarrassing.” the mystery lady said with a grin.

“You’re the person responsible for this aren’t you?” Jay said angrily.

“My my, you’re a perceptive young man. Too bad you won’t last long enough to see another day.”

Her last statement got Jay mad. He clapped his hands together to activate his flame dust and started shooting at the culprit. But, she was too fast for him, he couldn’t keep up with her movements and she was able to knock him back with her own flames. He landed on his back, too weak to move. The mystery woman hovered over him, her bow had turned into a blade. She leaned down and looked her victim right in the eyes and said,

“You’re nothing but weak kiddo, you weren’t even able to stop me. Now I’m going to show you why you should never pick a fight against me.”

In one quick movement, she swung her blade across his chest, with Jay letting out a cry of complete agony. She had sliced him from the top of his right shoulder, all the way down to his left hip. Satisfied with her handiwork, she lifted Jay off the floor. When she arrived to where Professor Ozpin and Pyrrha were, she got the headmaster’s attention by saying,

“Dear Ozpin, next time you want to take me down, don’t send one of your students to do your job.”

She dropped Jay’s body onto the floor, which got Pyrrha to scream from her pod. While Ozpin was distracted, the woman was able to get her bow back and shoot an arrow right into the other girl’s pod; draining all of the energy from the now lifeless body. Whoever this woman was, she had now obtained the full power of the Fall Maiden and things were not looking good. Pyrrha broke open her pod door using her semblance and was about to attack the mystery woman for what she did to Jay. Before she could however, Professor Ozpin stopped her.

“You need to get Jay and yourself out of here. Find Glynda, Ironwood and Qrow and bring them here right away. Hurry now!” Professor Ozpin yelled.

Pyrrha followed her headmaster’s orders and picked up Jay from the ground, rushing out of there as fast as she could carrying her teammate on her back. As Pyrrha ran, Jay’s head was on her shoulder. He had passed out from shock and Pyrrha started to cry. The whole time she was running, Pyrrha could not stop saying she was sorry; over and over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	18. The Fall of Beacon Part Two

Pyrrha continued to carry Jay, who was still bleeding out from his large wound. She needed to find a place so that she could get him some help before it was too late. She ran as fast as she could, while still holding on to her friend. Eventually, the two of them made it back to the center of Beacon Academy. Pyrrha saw Professor Oobleck urging students to prepare to be taken to the safe zone in Vale. As she continued to look around the area, she spotted some familiar faces. There in the courtyard were Ren, Nora, Weiss, Sun, Blake and Yang.

Pyrrha could not believe her eyes. Ren and Nora were both on the ground, with Ren clutching onto his chest in pain and Nora who also looked hurt from the battle. She turned her head and saw Yang on the ground, missing her arm, with Blake holding onto the golden haired girl’s other hand as she cried. Weiss and Sun were also there, looking after their injured friends. Pyrrha’s focus was broken when she heard Nora call her name.

Pyrrha rushed over and placed Jay on the ground next to Ren and Nora. Both of them looked at their fallen teammate in shock. They couldn’t understand what happened to their leader. 

“Pyrrha, how did this happen?” Nora asked in a concerned tone.

“ I don’t know to tell you the truth. All I know is that he got injured really badly… to protect me.” Pyrrha answered in a sullen tone. 

Pyrrha looked at everyone around her, she was sick and tired of all the destruction, the chaos and the pain her friends and everyone else had to suffer. She couldn’t take this anymore and she decided to take on the person responsible for all of this. Earlier as she was carrying Jay, she saw the mastermind go all the way to a nearby tower. She knew what she had to do. She knelt down next to her teammates and said,

“Ren, you have Glynda’s number right? Good. I need you to call her and ask her to come here right away.”

“Roger that.” Ren said, as he took out his scroll.

“Nora, I need you to get some of the first aid supplies offered by the Atlesian Military over there. Jay needs to be patched up before he can get proper medical care.”

“You got it. Pyrrha… what about you? Where are you going?” Nora asked.

“Nora… I need to go. I need to stop whoever started this mess. I have to fix this since no one else can.” Pyrrha said as she looked at her ginger friend.

“Then at least let one of us go with you.” Ren suggested.

“No, it’s too dangerous! Besides, you both need to stay here with Jay and I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Especially the people I care about.” Pyrrha said, as she looked at all of her hurt comrades.

“Pyrrha… please...don’t go.” Jay coughed out.

“Jay, you know I have to try. I don’t want to leave any of you, but I have to do this. Please, understand that.” Pyrrha said.

“Pyrrha please I-” Jay said, before Pyrrha interrupted him with a kiss on the lips. After staying like that for a moment, Pyrrha pulled away and said,

“I know you don’t want me to go, but I have to do this.”

“I know. Promise me you’ll be back.” Jay said as he looked up at her.

“I promise.” Pyrrha said, as she planted one last kiss on Jay’s cheek.

Pyrrha stood up from where she knelt and before she could walk away, she turned around and said to her teammates,

“Ren, Nora… Jay, stay safe and look after one another. I promise, I’ll come back. Goodbye.” Pyrrha said as she started to walk away. Before she left, she turned to Weiss and told her to look after Yang, Blake and Ruby. She also mentioned to her white haired friend to look out for Jay as well. Weiss nodded and wished Pyrrha luck on her mission. Pyrrha accepted her friend’s well wishes and in one quick movement, she was gone.

Jay felt groggy, he had no idea where he was. The last thing he saw was Pyrrha walking away from him. He opened his eyes and looked around, he was in a hospital bed. He had tubes attached to him and several monitors around him. He looked down and saw the bandage wrapped all around his chest. He remembered how he got hurt and it all came back to him. He for sure thought he was going to die back there.

He turned his head towards the door when he heard his grandparents walk in and he smiled at them.

“Hey there honey. How are you feeling?” his grandmother asked softly.

“I feel a little dizzy, but how did I get here?” Jay asked.

“Your friends did a good job patching you up, you were able to stay stable on your way to the safe zone in Vale. From there, they took you here to the hospital and you’ve been here for the past week.” his grandfather answered.

“We talked to the doctor. You were taken to have emergency surgery when you got here. There were a few complications, but it turned out successful. He said that you should make a full recovery, you just have to rest.” his grandmother added.

“Ok, that’s good at least. Where’s Melanie? Why isn’t she here with you?” Jay worried.

“It’s alright sweetie, she’s just fine. She’s here with us, she just went to get a drink. Actually look, here she is now.” his grandmother said, as Jay’s sister made her way into the room.

Melanie hurried over towards her brother and held his hand. She looked at him with teary eyes and said,

“Jay! I’m so glad you’re safe. I was worried about you, I didn’t want to lose my brother.”

“It’s alright Melanie, I’ll be fine. I just have to rest and be a bit more careful for a while that’s all.” he reassured his sister.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. The family looked to see Ren and Nora standing in the doorway. Jay’s grandparent’s looked at each other and decided it was best for their grandson to talk to his teammates. They left the room with his sister and Ren and Nora each pulled up a chair beside their friend.

“Hey there fearless leader! How are you feeling?” Nora asked.

“I’m just a bit scratched, but I’ll live. How are you guys?” Jay replied.

“We’re alright, we just had a couple of bruises.” Ren said.

“Ok, where’s Pyrrha? Is she with you guys?” Jay asked.

Ren and Nora looked at one another, unsure of what to say. He looked at them suspiciously, wondering what they were so worried about.

“Guys… where’s Pyrrha?” Jay said, with his teammates still not saying a word.

“Please I want to know, what’s going on? Where’s Pyrrha?” Jay asked again, this time with more worry in his voice.

Nora got up from her chair and placed her hand on her teammate’s shoulder. She looked him in the eyes and said,

“Jay… Pyrrha’s gone.” Nora said solemnly.

“No, you’re joking right? Pyrrha’s not gone, she told me she’d be bac-” 

“Jay, we’re not joking around. She’s gone, forever.” Ren said, as he stood beside Nora.

Jay couldn’t believe what he just heard. His best friend, someone he loved, was gone. He sat there in shock, the words not coming out. But after a moment, he slammed his right hand against the railing of his bed and the tears started to flow.

“She promised she’d be back, she promised us she’d back, why isn’t she here with us!? Pyrrha… why?” Jay sobbed.

As their teammate continued to cry, Ren and Nora each moved to his side and they wrapped their teammate in a light hug; making sure not to put pressure on his wound. As they held him, they started to tear up along with him. The three teammates stayed there, mourning over the loss of their teammate. It would never be the same without her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well everybody, we made it to the end of the fic! I just wanted to thank everyone who decided to give my fic a chance and read it. Please feel free to leave comments and tell me what you thought of this story! And don't worry, there is a sequel to this fic and I will post the first chapter next week! Again, thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
